The Child of Azkaban
by Puff Pastry Breadbug
Summary: One born in the shadow of Azkaban. Another born because of unhappiness, pain, and loss. The last born from a dead body. Three and two will come together to form something great. Something... Indestructible. WARNING: OCs. Lots of them.
1. 1

The Ministry didn't know what to make of it.

Just that morning they had received a letter telling them of urgent circumstances at Azkaban. The letter didn't state the problem, as it did when there was a break-out or an unruly dementor. It had come from Charles Figg, a particularly strong-willed Squib who lived on Bane Isle, a lump of rock near Azkaban. He usually sent monthly reports to the Ministry and did the burials as well.

"Gits, the lot of them. Making us go to bloody Azkaban when there's plenty of others…" muttered Ron Weasley, an Auror First-Class. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister of Magic, had assigned him and Harry Potter, head of the Auror Office, to check up on it.

"Well, there aren't any Dark wizards to catch, so what else are we going to do?" asked Harry irritably. "And plus, I've never been to Azkaban. Should be pretty interesting."

"Well, at least you can conjure a Patronus!" said Ron. "I've never been good at it." He shuddered. "And there are… spiders there. _Big_ spiders. The dementors… breed them."

Harry nodded sympathetically. Ron's greatest fear was spiders. Once, a boggart had turned into a giant acromantula, and Ron, in his nervousness forgetting to destroy it, let it free. The Auror Office still had several dents in the floor from where it's legs had punctured the ground.

The telephone booth had reached the London street that it was on, and they clambered out quickly.

"Wait, how am I supposed to Apparate to Azkaban?" asked Harry. "I've never seen it."

"Guess we'll have to do Side-Along," said Ron. "And we're going to Bane Isle, not the actual prison."

Harry hooked his arm around Ron's and waited. Ron did a pivot turn and the two Disapparated.

They arrive in the gloomiest place Harry had ever seen. It was a tiny outcrop made of black, slippery rock, not unlike the place the Dursleys had gone to to escape from Harry's flood of Hogwarts acceptance letters, and standing on the rock was a dilapidated shack. A tiny candle was lighting up the window, a pinprick of light in the stormy, crashing sea.

The door of the shack flew open, and an old, grizzled man stepped halfway out.

"Come in! Come in!" He seemed to shout, but his voice was drowned out by the explosive sounds of the waves slapping against the rock. Each fresh one soaked Ron and Harry to the skin.

"Thank goodness!" Ron exclaimed when he saw the fireplace inside the house. He did a quick Flame-Freezing Spell and stepped into the fireplace, still shivering.

"It's good to see you again, Ronald," said the man. "I don't have much company around here." He glanced at Harry, then, like so many other people, his scar. "And I don't believe it! Harry Potter! I'm Charles Figg. What a pleasure, what a pleasure…" He shook Harry's hand enthusiastically. "My sister told me all about you. I believe you know Arabella?"

"Mrs. Figg's your _sister_?" Harry said incredulously. Arabella Figg was a Squib who had watched over Harry during his years at number four, Privet drive. She had also been a witness to a dementor attack and testified for him during a Wizengamot hearing.

"Sure is," he said proudly. "Squibs, the two of us. Makes it easier, not seeing the dementors. I'm warden of Azkaban. Nobody else wanted the job."

"Er, speaking of Azkaban… where is it?"

Charles looked at him incredulously. "You don't know…? Come outside. Ronald, you may continue bathing in my fireplace, you've seen it before."

Harry grudgingly left the shack for the cold, rainy rock. Charles pointed his staff at the water. "Even Squibs can open Azkaban. All you have to say is this." He looked out at the water and shouted, "_Expecto morte graviorem fati!_"

Immediately a gigantic wave came roaring out of the depths of the North Sea. It crested higher and higher, until it fell with an almighty crash.

Harry stared. Where it had just been black water was a giant black triangular prism on it's side, battered but still standing strong against the ocean. Hundreds of dementors swarmed around it, darting in and out of the top, which was the only opening.

"I expect a fate worse than death," explained Charles. "Pretty gruesome, eh?"

Harry was about to respond, when an almighty shriek came from inside the house.

"WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?"

"WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?"

Charles smiled grimly. "It appears that Ronald has met the reason that you are here today, Harry."

They went back inside, Harry taking a last glance at Azkaban before shutting the door. That voice had sounded familiar.

Ron was standing up, clearly horrified. "Harry - what is she - how is she - oh _no_."

Harry glanced across the room and gasped. The person he saw there saw him and smiled a wide, toothy grin.

Harry looked at the person, then down at his hand. _I must not tell lies_.

"Good morning, Dolores," Charles said quietly.

Seven years in Azkaban had not done Dolores Umbridge any good. Her handmade pink prison clothes were torn and dirty, her usually curled hair a limp mess, and her smug toady face was not looking as _I'm-better-than-you_ as Harry remembered it.

"Hello, children," she said, in a voice that was sweeter than sugar mixed with honey. "Although you're not really children anymore, are you?"

"Don't… talk… to… me," Harry growled, staring at her with dislike.

"_Hem-hem_," Umbridge said to Charles. "I need some tea."

He slowly brought her a cup of cold tea. She sipped it daintily then said brightly, "Oh, Mr. Potter. Still disrespectful after all these years, aren't we?" Her voice was positively dripping with sugary happiness - she was getting angrier.

"You tortured me, you evil creature!" Harry shouted at her. "You took everything I loved, and tried to destroy it."

Umbridge tut-tutted at him, then pointed to his hand. Grinning from ear to ear, she whispered, "Now, now, Mr. Potter. Mustn't tell lies."

Harry clenched his fist even tighter. There was an icy silence, colder than the North Sea, for a while, before Charles stepped between them.

"Dolores, I think it'd be best if you brought down the… problem."

"Yes, Charles," she said. She backed slowly out of the room, all the while keeping her eyes fixated on Harry and Ron. Walking up the creaking steps to the higher floor, Harry felt that those awful eyes were staring at him still. An entire fountain of emotions had erupted out of him. Hate for that despicable woman. Hate for Charles for taking care of her. Slight appreciation for the dementors for hurting her. And hate for Shacklebolt for sending him here.

"Here he is," Umbridge said, arriving in the little room again, and held out her arms.

A little baby boy was cradled in a nest of raggedy blankets. He had a mess of brown hair, skin so pale it was almost white, and the longest face Harry had ever seen on a baby.

"Dolores," Charles began, "Had this baby yesterday."

"Who'd've ever wanted a baby with _her_?" Ron whispered.

"Obviously, she had not come into human - er - contact for nineteen years, so the way that she had this child is completely unknown. I convinced the dementors to release her her, on Bane Isle, so she could care for the child. Dolores has not told me how she had the child."

Another wide, toady smile spread across Umbridge's face, but she didn't say anything. "My Levi," she whispered in a manical voice. "My little boy."

Harry fought the urge to vomit on the floor.

"I'll get the Minister," Ron said, and he turned on the spot to Disapparate. Horrifically, he suddenly found every single part of his body detached.

"_R-r-r-reparo_," Harry stuttered, and Ron's body sickeningly flew back together.

"Can't Apparate or Disapparate inside the house," Charles stated matter-of-factly. "Head outside."

A few minutes later the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, strode through the doorway.

"Mr. Weasley told me everything," he said calmly. He took out a bottle of clear liquid.

"Come here, Dolores," he ordered. She, very calmly, walked towards him and stuck out her tea cup.

Shacklebolt poured the Veritaserum into her drink, and she gulped it down.

"How did you have your child?" Shacklebolt asked immediately.

Umbridge smiled. "Haven't a clue."

The Minister looked shocked. "Explain."

"Won't," she said, still smiling.

"That was… that was matured Veritaserum!" Shacklebolt said hoarsely. "The older it is, the stronger it is. How…?"

"And don't even try Legilimency," Umbridge said, and the glint in her eye said the rest.

"This is… highly unusual," Shacklebolt said after a while. "But I think that Dolores should remain here, on Bane Isle, to raise the child. He will not be asked to go to Hogwarts or any magical school - I shall make sure Professor McGonagall will not send a letter."

"Are we… are we allowed to leave, Minister?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Potter, you may go," Shacklebolt said. "You too, Weasley."

Harry relieved, dragged Ron out the door, where he Apparated immediately.

Ron arrive a few seconds later, and they headed back down to the Ministry.

"Umbridge," Ron said disbelievingly. "_Umbridge_. I'm just thankful that that kid can't get to Hogwarts…"

Harry half-listened to Ron, all the while thinking. It was a skill he had gotten from listening to speeches in the Wizengamot, pretending to be paying attention.

Shacklebolt said that there was no way the baby would ever go to Hogwarts. Yet Harry knew that letters would always find their way to every eleven-year-old nearby. He himself had been found by his acceptance letter.

And he was sure that Levi would be found the same way.


	2. 2

"Mother, can I visit the dementors today?"

Dolores Umbridge always froze whenever her son asked her that. She had never once looked out the window of the Bane Isle shack, never once stared at the wretched prison that had been her home - if you could call it that - for seven wretched years.

Yet her son Levi was constantly entranced by it's black iron walls. Charles Figg, the warden, would take him there, and then he'd talk on and on later about walking around the outside with the dementors, talking with them and playing games with them.

Odd, how the most detested creature on earth was her son's best friend. At least it wasn't a _half-breed._

"Well…" she began. It was her son's eleventh birthday today. She was nervous - the Minister had promised not to send a Hogwarts letter for him, but she was sure that that despicable McGonagall would find a way to get every underage wizard in Great Britain an acceptance form. And Azkaban was Unplottable…

Dolores Umbridge had one great reason for not letting her son go to Hogwarts - the dirty blood spread throughout the school. Muggle-borns were crawling all over the place like beetles, and those _half-breeds_ - giants, mermaids, centaurs - all of them held teaching positions at Hogwarts. It was simply unacceptable.

"Ask Charles to take you. You know I can't stand that place."

"Thank you, mother!" Suddenly Levi's arms had been flung around her still substantial middle section.

Dolores said nothing, preoccupied. Her parents had not wanted her to go to Hogwarts, yet several hundred acceptance letters wedged themselves into the protective spells her parents had placed around the house, creating a dome seemingly made of paper. They had not relented until she opened one.

Despite the protections, despite the Minister's promise, she could not help feeling nervous…

Charles rowed slowly, painstakingly, across the water to Azkaban, which he had let Levi reveal today. Levi leaned over the side of the boat, feeding lettuce and tidbits of food to the Lobalugs deep below.

The boat ground to a halt on the black sand. The ocean was unnaturally calm - only the second time in his life that Levi could remember it not being stormy.

"Have fun, kid," Charles said. "I have to do my rounds."

"'Kay," Levi said, half-listening. He walked towards the walls of the prison.

Immediately a dementor swooped out of the sky, it' black robes fluttering. It was zooming down on him, about to give the Dementor's Kiss to him.

Levi pretended to be frightened, but then the dementor swooped him into a hug.

"Hello!" Levi said. The dementor nodded and gestured with its slimy, pus-oozing hand for him to follow.

They began their regular walk around Azkaban, Levi talking all the while.

"-And Mother won't let me capture a Lobalug, says that they're _gross_, but how can she say that when she eats that horrid entrail soup that Charles makes-"

Charles looked on from afar. He had known plenty of strange children before he had become warden of Azkaban, and Dolores Umbridge's son was most definitely the strangest. The dementors - the foulest creatures on earth, they who, although he would never admit it, were his greatest fear - were this boy's best friend. He would talk to them, hug them, even ride on the ends of their tattered cloaks. Umbridge ignored anything to do with the creatures, but Charles knew that absolutely no other child would ever look at a dementor and do anything but scream.

Now a group of dementors and the boy were playing a game of tag. It was slightly unfair, as the boy couldn't glide over the ground like they could.

Yes, Charles mused. Very strange indeed.

Professor Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts and Tranfiguration teacher as well, was having trouble.

An anonymous letter had been sent to her, saying that a child by the name of Levi lived on Bane Isle, was turning eleven today, on the first of August, and he needed his acceptance letter, for he was most definitely a wizard. She had to assume that the warden there had had a child, god knows how, but there was no last name. Of course, Bane Isle was Plottable, but when her owl had arrived and she used Legilimency to see its thoughts, the house that was supposed to be there wasn't. A Fidelius Charm, obviously, a strong one too.

She thought for a moment, then turned to the wall of portraits behind her. She sought on one particular man, with a white beard and half-moon spectacles…

"Dumbledore?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes, Minerva?" Albus Dumbledore's portrait replied.

"There is a child on Bane Isle who appears to be a wizard. I am not sure how to, er, get his letter to him."

"Oh, that's _simple_," said a nasty-looking man high above the rest.

"Really, Squirefly?" McGonagall said coldly. Except for Albus Dumbledore and Armando Dippet, as a general rule she disliked the previous headmasters and they disliked her. Squirefly, for example, disapproved of her continuing to teach Transfiguration while being Headmistress.

"I was warden of Azkaban for a few years," he said loftily. "Just say _Expecto morte graviorem fati_. Azkaban will appear, it'll splash on the house, and they warden will come out. It's the only way."

"Must _I_ go?" she asked.

"I believe, Minerva," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling, "That it would be best if you did."

"If that is what you think," the Headmistress said, drawing her cloak around her, "Then I will go."

She walked out of the office, and as soon as the door closed, Squirefly roared, "Dumbledore, you bloody madman! Sending her to get Umbridge's child!"

"You believe that Minerva still harbors a grudge against Dolores?" asked Dumbledore.

"BELIEVE?" shouted Squirefly, roaring with laughter. "Oh, Albus, I _know_. I was in my portrait in the classroom when Umbridge inspected her. Albus, this may be your finest moment!"

As the portraits of the past Headmasters laughed, Dumbledore said nothing. Finally, in a quiet, but overpowering voice, he said, "I think that Minerva must learn to forget old grudges, and this is an excellent place to start."

"You've made a grave mistake, sir," Dippet said. "I'm placing a bet that she'll _accidentally_ Transfigure the child into a bug and step on it within the first week."

The other portraits continued to laugh. Dumbledore slipped out of his portrait frame, knowing full well that Minerva would be in a rage when she got back. And if he guessed right - which he often did - she would take it out on the portraits in her room.

Professor McGonagall stared at the massive prison in front of her. The hair on the back of her neck raised whenever a dementor swooped out of the sky - Shacklebolt had promised to stop using them as prison guards, but sheer force of numbers prevented them from moving. Other prisons had been constructed for less serious crimes, such as minor stealing and such, but the Unforgivables still went here.

She drew her cloak tighter around her and waited for the warden to come out of the house. Instead, a distant voice called out to her.

"OI!"

She turned and looked. A man was rowing in a boat towards her, a little child next to him. That must be the boy she was sent for. But the man looked ancient - surely it was not his child?

As the man dragged the boat up the rocky cliffs, she said politely, "May I assume that I am speaking to the warden of Azkaban?"

"You sure are!" the man said genially. "Charles Figg's the name. And you?"

"Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Charles Figg stiffened up, as did the boy, who backed behind the warden.

"Well, er, Headmistress, could you, ah, Apparate back to the school."

"I have been informed that your child is a wizard, Charles."

"He isn't, ah, my child, really. But he's a Squib. Not a drop of magical blood in him."

"Who does he belong to, then?"

Charles Figg looked incredibly nervous - Minerva could tell he was making things up on the spot. "Ah - he's an - an orphan, that's what he is, an orphan… I'm training him to, er, become the next warden of, ah, Azkaban…"

Minerva looked down her nose at him. "Mr. Figg, I think it's clear to us both that you are a terrible liar. Now, kindly invite me into your house - I'm freezing."

Charles looked like he was about to protest, so Minerva gave him her famous stare of disapproval. The boy shrank back even farther.

"Of - of course…" He sounded defeated and scared. He wandered up to the raised center of the island and tapped it with his thumb miserably.

Professor McGonagall had always found Fidelius Charms incredible to watch in action. The house appeared in miniature form between a crack in the stone, then stretched bigger and bigger, rapidly filling up space until it covered almost all of the island. It looked incredibly unsafe and probably just as freezing as it was outside, but she went in anyway. She might have to use magic to get the real story out of him.

"Now, I don't think it's, er, wise, to, ah-"

Charles was cut off by someone's shriek from inside. Immediately afterwards a short, squat figure burst out of the house. A figure that Minerva had hoped to never, ever, see again.

"MINERVA MCGONAGALL!" shrieked Dolores Umbridge.

"Dolores Umbridge," Minerva said in horror. "But surely - that boy - isn't - ?"

"HE IS MINE!" howled the toady woman. "AND HE IS NOT GOING TO YOUR HALF-BREED INFESTED SCHOOL!"

Minerva's mind was racing a mile a minute. Dumbledore had told her to get the child, and she knew that leaving an underage wizard with no schooling was incredibly dangerous… yet, she never, ever could look at that boy's pale, long face without envisioning a wide, toady grin and the voice as sweet as sugar. She could not look at him without seeing the back of Harry Potter's hand, scarred for life. She hated the boy. She _hated_ him. But she knew she had no choice.

"It is upon the order of the Ministry of Magic that I bring your son to schooling, no matter how much I would like to leave him here on this forsaken rock forever."

Suddenly Umbridge went from insane to sugar-sweet. "Shacklebolt put you up to this, didn't he? Silly man, trying to mess with Dolores Umbridge…"

"Dolores, if you do not let your son come with me, I will be forced to use magic on you."

"Forced, are you?" she said in that sickening voice. "You _want_ to hurt me, don't you Minerva? But I'm sure Charles has an empty cell in Azkaban with your name on it, _don't you, Charles_?" She stared at him and smiled that god-forsaken grin.

"Y-y-y-y-yes," he stammered, breaking under the force of her smile. Minerva didn't blame him.

"Yes, forced. _Accio Levi_."

The boy flew from behind the Squib into Minerva's general area.

"_Incarcerous_." This time, ropes shot out of Minerva's wand and wrapped themselves around Dolores.

"Mother? I'm being taken to Hogwarts? But didn't you tell me that there are - that there are _half-breeds_ there?"

Minerva's hate for Levi grew even stronger.

"We are leaving, Mr. Umbridge. Hold onto my arm."

Levi looked wildly at Charles and Dolores, then at the sky. "HELP ME!" He yelled.

Minerva looked up and shrieked. Hundreds of dementors were swooping down towards her. Dolores shrieked with fear while Charles set his jaw and looked firmly at where the swarm was, even though they were invisible to him. Levi looked incredibly grateful.

One dementor broke off from the rest and wrapped it's grey hands around the boy, gliding away from Minerva. She gasped in horror - the boy was _hugging_ the dementor.

"Thank you, _thank you_," he sobbed into the fabric.

A Patronus charm. She needed to conjure a Patronus.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM!_" Minerva shrieked, thinking of that historical moment when the lifeless body of Voldemort fell to the ground.

A silver tabby cat galloped out of her wand, sprinting into the crowd of dementors, who scattered and ran for it. She directed it to the dementor holding Levi, who gave an unearthly screech and flew, accidentally leaving the boy behind. Minerva performed a silent Summoning charm for the boy.

Charles looked absolutely flabbergasted at the display of magic - Dolores was simultaneously sobbing and shrieking with rage.

Before the boy or the dementors could react, Minerva placed his hand on her arm, though of the Leaky Cauldron's spacious attic, and Disapparated.

"...My son," Dolores whimpered after a moment, sinking to the ground. She burst into tears.

Charles, still struck dumb by what just happened, failed to notice what a historical moment this was.

Dolores Umbridge had finally loved someone.

Minerva and the boy arrived in the attic, and immediately the boy tried to escape. Minerva held him by the arms and hissed, "Listen to me."

To her surprise, he relaxed and turned attentively to her. She took a deep breath.

"Has your - mother - ever told you anything about the Wizarding world?"

"Oh, loads of stuff," the boy said excitedly. "All about the Wizarding Wars, and - and Hogwarts. She always told me how bad Hogwarts was, but I've always wanted to go there. I mean, I could ignore the half-breeds teaching there, and I'd be fine."

Minerva took a sharp intake of breath. So Umbridge had planted her beliefs in her son. "Well, you're going there on the first of September. I suppose she told you about the houses and how it works? Or rather, how _badly_ it works?"

"Well, Charles did," Levi said. "I mean, he's a _Squib_-" here he wrinkled his nose - "-but he's really nice. He knows all about Hogwarts."

"Listen to me, Mr. Umbridge. Everyone here despises your mother." The boy's eyes widened in surprise, and Minerva found - a tad guiltily - that she was enjoying herself. "And if I know anything about Hogwarts students, they will despise you for being her son." His eyes widened even more. "Furthermore, I can attest that the entire staff loathes Dolores with a passion, and that many teachers had to deal firsthand with her when she was Headmistress for a short time.

"Now, I will have the woman who is the landlady here, Hannah Longbottom, escort you to the various shops in Diagon Alley-"

"I know about Diagon Alley!" Levi said suddenly. "Full of magical shops - Even a _wand_ shop."

"As I was saying," Minerva said icily, "Mrs. Longbottom will take you to all the necessary shops. You will _not_ say your last name. You will _not_ mention anything about who you call 'half-breeds'. And you will not mention who your mother is. Do you understand?"

"Y-y-yes."

"You will address me as 'Professor' or 'ma'am'."

"Yes, Professor."

"And here's Ollivander's!" Hannah Longbottom said to Levi.

After McGonagall had left him with the landlady, his first impression of her was a yellow string bean. She was about seven feet tall, wore all yellow and black, and had a large picture of a badger embroidered on every article of clothing she owned - A former Hufflepuff, obviously.

"I've been looking forward to Ollivander's," he confessed truthfully.

"Don't we all," she said wistfully. "Why, I remember getting _my _wand - eleven-and-a-half inches, oak, unicorn tail hair core…"

She drifted off as they entered the store.

"Welcome, welcome…"

A tiny, stooped man bowed to them.

"And to whom do I owe the pleasure of selling a wand to?"

"I'm Levi," Levi responded.

"Interesting, very interesting. Try this - 10 inches, hawthorn, phoenix tail feather core… no, no, no… 14 inches, holly, dragon heartstring, good for Arithmancy and such… no, definitely not… how about this?"

He continued in this vein for sometimes, until there was a substantial amount of empty boxes and wands scattered on the table. Both he and Hannah looked nervous.

"Oh-ho!" Ollivander yelled suddenly, causing Levi to jump up in the air. "Yes, this, I believe, will work for you. Eighteen inches, pearwood, and a very interesting core indeed… yes, a traveler from Burkina Faso delivered venom from each of the Runespoor's three heads, and I mixed it together to create a fluid core. Absolutely breathtaking for Transfiguration…"

And a warm, tingling feeling spread down Levi's arm.

Ollivander looked fascinated. "Now I understand… Very unusual, very unusual. I believe you would want to know, Mr. Levi, that I rarely use pearwood for wands, eighteen inches is the longest wand I have ever sold, and this is the very first time I have ever used Runespoor venom for a core. A very unique wand indeed…"

He bowed the distractedly from his shop, muttering soundlessly all the while.

"He can be a bit strange, can't he?" asked Hannah cheerfully. "Anyway, Florence Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor looks to be giving out free sundaes. You up for one?"

"A… sundae? What's a sundae?" Levi asked innocently.

Hannah stared at him. "My goodness, you must have had a very sheltered life! Florence Fortescue's ice cream is absolutely delicious - come on, you have to try it…"

So Levi followed behind, examining the long wand that was now his. When he turned it upside down, a strange rattling _whoosh_ came from inside it, like rain caught in a tube. That must be the Runespoor venom…

Levi didn't know what to think about all this just yet. He had never seen so many people, and he had never been away from his mother, yet for some strange reason, he didn't miss his old life on Bane Isle. Only the dementors.

"You okay, Levi? You seem lost in thought."

Hannah's question came to him after they had gotten a nice sunny seat outside the Ice Cream Parlor

"Yeah… Just - overwhelmed."

"I understand," she said, laughing. "I had never been my first year as well."

Levi doubted whether Hannah had as much emotional turmoil inside of him as he did. She didn't have the most hated witch of all time as a mother, did she?

"Here ya go," said a kindly plump witch with flyaway brown hair. Levi tentatively took a spoonful of ice cream and ate it.

His face lit up and he eagerly dived in for more, all troubles forgotten. Hannah Longbottom laughed.

"I _knew_ you'd like it."


	3. 3

Levi's trunk was packed - his wand carefully stowed, his schoolbooks tucked away safely, school robes folded neatly. As a birthday present, Hannah had bought him a barn owl that he had named Mimby, after her husband's _mimbulus mimbletonia_ that he helped prune every morning.

Platform nine-and-three-quarters was a madhouse - children and parents running this way and that, a tall, red-headed man who Hannah Longbottom knew to be Percy Weasley, and plenty of screeching owls took centerstage here.

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Longbottom," he said politely.

"Oh, _Levi,_" she said emotionally, and hugged him. "Have a good time at Hogwarts, okay? Write to me and tell me what house you get sorted into!"

The train's whistle was blowing - Levi waved good bye to Hannah, hoisted his luggage onto the train, and shut the door behind him.

He went searching for the best compartment. He happened upon one with a few children who looked to be his age in it, so he headed in there.

"Hello!" he said nervously.

"Hi!"

"Heya."

"Mm."

He set his trunk on the luggage rack and sat down. A girl with jet black hair and big blue eyes said, "I'm Alexandra Macmillan. Call me Ali."

A black boy with strikingly slanted eyes said, "And I'm Skoren Zabini."

"And I'm Blake Finnigan." The last boy had long, shaggy brown hair and a lazy smile.

"I'm Levi Um-" He stopped himself from saying his last name just in time.

"Nice to meet you, Levi Um," said Ali jokingly. Suddenly her facial expression changed from smiling to serious in a half-second. "Did you hear? _Harry Potter's_ kid is in the same years as us! They're on the train right now!"

"Oh, you mean Albus?" Blake said. "Yeah, Harry and me dad - Seamus Finnigan - were good friends at school. I met him a couple of times."

"Pfft," snorted Skoren. "Celebrities, are they?"

"Well, duh!" Ali looked scandalized. "Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who!"

"True," reasoned Blake. "But me dad told me to never treat him like he was some sort of god or anything. Doesn't like it, probably."

"I wouldn't blame him," Levi said after a moment. "People constantly getting all nervous around you just because you did something nineteen years ago."

Ali's face changed from serious to excited - again, in just half a second. "What house do you want to be in? My dad was in Hufflepuff, so I want to be one too."

"Gryffindor, like me dad," responded Blake.

"Well, Slytherin's the place to be, obviously, if you want to go anywhere with your life," Skoren said.

"Ravenclaw sounds interesting," Levi mused. They had all said this at the same time - they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Looks like we won't be in the same houses, will we?" said Ali. Once again, her extremely emotional face switched from laughing to serious in a matter of seconds. "What subjects do you think-"

She was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," she said.

The door slid open and a nervous redheaded girl stepped into view.

"Hi. D'you mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all," said Ali graciously, and moved over so the girl could sit down.

"I'm sorry, I just _had_ to escape from James, he's been telling me ways I can beat down Scorpius and all that-"

"James? As in James _Potter_?" Ali asked incredulously. "Who are you?"

"Oh," the girl said, embarrassed. "I'm Rose Weasley. Perhaps you've heard of my parents - Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley?"

"'Eard of them?" Blake almost yelled. "Of course we've 'eard of them! They're Harry Potter's best friends, they are!"

"Well…yeah," Rose said, blushing.

"Cool down, Blake, we had this discussion a minute ago," Ali said impatiently, who then turned her head back to Rose. "So, tell us, what house do you want to be in?"

It was one of the most enjoyable times in Levi's life, even more so than the time that he and the dementors had gone deep-sea diving and they had frozen the water with the slightest touch. He learned that Ali's father Ernie had known Harry Potter as well, though she had never met him. Skoren's dad had also been acquainted, but he confessed that the two had never liked each other. Their conversation was interrupted by the candy trolley arriving. Everyone pitched in and bought a feast of epic proportions.

"Oh no!" squealed Rose, dropping the pumpkin pasty she held. "Hide me, it's James!"

Blake and Rose switched places just as a tall, confident-looking boy passed by. He peered into the window, didn't see Rose, and moved on.

"What's wrong?" asked Levi. "Isn't James your friend?"

"Yeah, I guess," Rose said. "But I mean, ever since Dad started going on about Scorpius, James has too. And he's even _worse_ than dad because he thinks that it's his _job_ to protect me from anything he deems too scary."

"It must be a pain," Ali agreed sympathetically. "Have a cauldron cake."

The compartment went silent again as everyone continued munching on the snacks, until Blake snatched up a previously untouched bag of jelly beans and said, "Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans! Awesome!"

"Oh, I have a game my dad taught me," Rose said, looking at the bag. "You reach in and take one bean, try and guess it, and eat it. You pass the bag around until someone gets one so ugly that they chicken out and can't do it."

"You're on!" Levi said enthusiastically.

"Sure," said Skoren, but Levi could see the glint in his eye that meant he was excited.

"Blake, you start," ordered Ali.

"Sure," he said, taking out a purple one. "Er - eggplant?"

Hesitantly he threw it into his mouth and started chewing, then looked revolted.

"What was it?" Rose asked.

"B-B-bruise-flavored," Blake said, gagging. Rose laughed.

"My turn," Ali said dismissively, grabbing the bag and pulling out a white-colored one. "I'm guessing coconut."

"You'd be lucky," snorted Skoren. "No one ever gets real flavors anymore."

She convulsed and said hoarsely, "It was _feathers._ How do you flavor something like a _feather_?"

"The question is actually 'how would you Transfigure a feather into a jelly bean shape," Skoren said, while grabbing the bag. A bright red bean came out. "Knowing my luck, it's probably a chili pepper," he said, and tossed it down. His face immediately turned green from the effort of keeping it in his stomach. "Pepperoni," he whispered. "_Yuck_."

Rose was still recovering from a termite-flavored bean when Levi pulled out a brown bean. Everyone gasped.

"You don't think…?" Levi asked hesitantly.

Ali shrugged, mortified.

Levi popped it into his mouth and sighed with delight.

"Chocolate."

Ali, Skoren, and Rose were debating the probabilities of pulling a regular-flavor jelly bean from the bag, when the door slid open without the person knocking. It was James.

"I _knew_ I had heard your voice!" He said triumphantly to Rose. "Come on, let's go talk tactics-"

"I'm with _friends_, thank you," Rose said coldly. "I'd rather not."

"Rose Weasley," James said seriously. "You come with me right now."

"_No_."

The two stared each other down, until her penetrating gaze was too much for James, who looked away dismissively.

"Okay then," he said, "But when the Whomping Willow crushes you or someone tries to hex you, don't run to me."

"I don't think I'll need to, you brainless git," she said. "Now get out."

The James left without another word.

"Wow, I could _never_ talk that way to my older brothers!" Blake said, amazed.

"I hate it when he does that, making you feel like the guilty one," Rose muttered unhappily.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Ali said. Levi noticed from her tone of voice that she was trying to distract Rose from what had just happened. "Let's compare wands."

All of the rummaged through their trunks until they pulled them out.

"Okay, mine is fourteen inches, rosewood. Good for Defense Against the Dark Arts," Rose began.

"Mine is ten inches, maple, with a blend of Chimaera hair and Chimaera scale as its core. Awesome for Arithmancy, but I don't know what that even means." Blake continued.

"Math magic," Skoren explained, and Blake made a face.

"Mine is oak, 8-and-a-half inches, with a Sphinx eye as its core," Ali recited. "He says that because it's so bendy I'll have no problem with Charms."

"It's funny," Rose said suddenly. "Ollivander used to only use phoenix feathers, unicorn hair, and dragon heartstrings as cores, my mum told me. Now he's branching into all sorts of different things. Mine has a Quintaped hair inside it."

"No way!" marveled Skoren. "_Quintaped_ hair? How did he even _get_ that?"

"I have no idea," she said truthfully. "What's in yours?"

Skoren looked happily smug. "Mine is mahogany, 15 inches, with - get this - a Demiguise hair core. It's so light and airy."

"_No_!" Rose said, gasping.

"What's a Demiguise?" Levi asked innocently.

Rose gaped at him. "A Demiguise is a beautiful ape-like creature who can turn _invisible_ because of its hair."

"Wow!" Levi said. "Lucky…"

"Well, what's yours?" asked Rose.

"Er, eighteen inches, pearwood, with Runespoor venom as it's core. Good for, I think he said, Transfiguration?"

"Wow, Runespoor venom," Ali said enviously. "It's the rune for number three. And - hey, watch it!"

As Levi swung it around, his wand almost poked out Ali's eye.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

The door opened again and a beautiful girl stepped into sight.

"Ve will arrive at Hogwarts very soon," the girl said. "Rose, zere you are!"

"Hi, Victoire," Rose muttered.

"Anyways, put on your robes, okay? Ve only have a half hour left."

The girl left the door frame and walked away.

"You _know_ her?" asked Blake, still goggling at the empty space where the girl had been.

"Yeah, she's my cousin," Rose said quietly. "Part Veela."

"No wonder!" Blake said, _still_ staring at the doorframe.

"We have to get changed into our school robes now," Ali said. "We'll meet back here afterwords."

"Come on, get your robes out," Blake urged impatiently. Skoren had already left, as had the girls.

"Coming, coming," Levi said, hoisting his trunk back on the luggage rack.

Hogwarts was breathtaking.

Levi had his first view of it as the boat containing him, Ali, Blake, and Skoren sailed into the lake (Rose had gotten separated from them by the crowd and was grabbed by James Potter).

"It's _magical_," whispered Ali.

"Wow," said Blake.

Even Skoren's eyes widened.

They arrive in the underground dock and headed up the stairs, where an imposing, old woman stood waiting for them.

"I am Professor McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts and teacher of Transfiguration. You are all about to be Sorted into your houses. Once the doors open, follow me, and I'll call you alphabetically by last name to get Sorted by the Sorting Hat. Let us begin."

The doors opened and Levi found himself being stared at by hundreds of children. THe first years walked nervously down the aisles, stopping in front of a stool. McGonagall brought out the Sorting Hat - Levi had been told all about it by Charles. It sang a funny song, but he couldn't listen. He was too nervous. Because he had a feeling that his friends would not like him anymore once they found out his last name.

Professor McGonagall unrolled a scroll of parchment and began with, "Bones, Jordan!"

A sullen-looking boy sat on the stool and had the hat placed on his head. A full three minutes passed by until the hat yelled, "RAVENCLAW!"

A table on the far left started cheering as Jordan Bones walked towards them. Ali whispered in Levi's ear, "My dad knows his mum, they were Hufflepuffs together. Ravenclaw's not the worst, I guess."

A couple more kids got sorted. McGonagall called out their names.

"Barreson, Susannah! Finch-Fletchley, Lucky! Finch-Fletchley, Clover! Finnigan, Blake!"

Blake stepped forward nervously and edged towards the seat. The hat barely touched his ears when it roared, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Blake smiled back at his friends and walked towards the table on the left, which was cheering madly.

Levi jumped nervously when Professor McGonagall called, "Macmillan, Alexandra!"

She gave him a thumbs up before rushing to the stool. The hat settled on her ears, then yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table on the right started whooping with cheers. Ali was the first new Hufflepuff.

"Malfoy, Scorpius!"

A bout of muttering passed through the Great Hall as a blond boy sat on the stool. The hat sat on his head for a while before screaming, "SLYTHERIN!"

Only one table cheered - the others didn't even clap. Levi wondered what the boy had done to make himself so unlikeable.

More people were sorted. Nartrodder, Fabian became a Hufflepuff alongside Ali. Levi's stomach was doing somersaults now. He could imagine Professor McGonagall's distate as she called his name, how all his friends would stop talking to him, how no one would like him…

"Potter, Albus!"

"I wonder what he'll get," whispered Rose in Levi's ear.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat yelled. The boy turned pale, and McGonagall's eyes widened. The table that had cheered for Scorpius wasn't cheering very much. Albus stumbled to the Slytherin table, still a ghostly white.

"Oh _no_," Rose whispered. "His biggest fear was becoming a Slytherin."

More people passed until Tyvern, Connor, was sorted into Ravenclaw. He was next.

Professor McGonagall looked stony-faced. "Umbridge, Levi."

The effect was instantaneous. The entire Great Hall started whispering - Levi looked and found Ali and Blake looking thunderstruck at him. Rose gasped and backed away from him, as did Skoren. People were staring, no, _glaring_ at him now. Every single professor there looked down their nose at him. He heard one whisper, "-looked like such a nice boy-"

He walked unsteadily to the stool, where McGonagall crammed the Sorting Hat on his head.

"Hmm," whispered a voice in his ear. "You possess a quality for each house, don't you, Umbridge? You have some courage - Gryffindor - , I sense ambition - Slytherin - , you certainly have the brains and the creativity - Ravenclaw - yet overpowering it all is your fierce loyalty to those you know. Better be HUFFLEPUFF!"

The last part was shouted to the room, but no one cheered. Professor McGonagall tugged the Sorting Hat off his head, and Levi went dejectedly to the Hufflepuff table. To his surprise, Ali Macmillan made a space for him.

"I'm sorry," Levi said quietly. To his surprise, Ali whispered back, "Hufflepuffs stick together and are good friends. I don't blame you for a _thing_."

He looked gratefully at her, but turned his attention back to the Sorting Ceremony when McGonagall called, "Weasley, Rose!"

Rose, still looking dazed by Levi's last name, sat on the stool. "GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat shouted a moment later.

"Well, you can't blame her for freaking out about you," Ali said. "Her dad was a student of your mum here. He must've been drilling all sorts of stories into her head."

"Wait - my mum _taught _here?" Levi asked incredulously.

"She was the Headmistress for half a year," Ali included.

"No way," Levi marveled. "She was always telling me how _terrible_ Hogwarts was."

"Quiet!" Ali said suddenly. "Skoren's being sorted."

The Hat touched his head for a second before yelling, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Yay!" Ali said as everyone cheered and clapped. "He's with us!"

Skoren sat down on the other side of Levi. "I - I forgive you too," he said. "I mean, it was just a bit shocking."

"Yeah," Levi said, slightly bitterly. He then did a double take - where there had been empty platters before were hundreds of different foods.

"Wow, look at all this!" he said in awe.

"You're acting like you've never seen roast beef before," Ali said between mouthfuls of meat.

"I haven't," he admitted. "I've lived with the warden of Azkaban and my mother my entire life. The only meat I've ever had is Lobalug entrail soup."

Ali and Skoren gagged.

"Man, don't bloody talk about _entrails_ while we're eating!" protested Skoren.

Levi couldn't help but laugh, and helped himself to some roast beef.


	4. 4

Ali, Skoren, and Levi wandered down past the kitchen with the rest of their fellow Hufflepuffs. They were all following a prefect named Kate Swisher, who led them to a painting of a bowl with fruit scattered around it.

"You always need a friend to get into the Hufflepuff common room," she explained. "Because only the combined voices of two or more people can make the painting work. You have to tell the fruit the correct order to go into the bowl. Right now it's banana, pear, grape, apple, orange, watermelon, peach, then lemon."

She and the other prefect, a boy named Perry Fardinger, recited these together, and the fruit rose up and swooped into the bowl.

"Then," Kate continued, "you have to sing a poem about the right fruit. At the moment, it's a lemon. Just sing any old thing to it - you can make it up on the spot."

So Perry Fardinger recited, "_Roses are red, violets are blue, I think lemons are sour, what about you_?"

The fruit in the bowl giggled madly as the portrait swung open.

The Hufflepuff common room was the coziest place Levi had ever seen.

The walls were made completely of earth, and a tangle of roots crisscrossed down ever side of the circular room. Hanging from the roots was an extraordinary assortment of plants, as well as plenty of banners bearing the Hufflepuff badger. A bulletin board was stuck on the wall, covered with notices. Bookshelves were carved into the walls, holding vast amounts of books. A large stone fireplace was embedded in the wall and was surrounded by an assortment of yellow and black armchairs and couches. Covering the floor was a thick shag carpet.

All around the perimeter of the room were little tunnels that led up, down, to the right, and to the left.

"Those tunnels go to the dormitories," explained Kate. Skoren tried to enter one, but fell flat on his back. A wall of dirt erupted out of the ground, blocking him from entering, and a face made out of the earth screamed, "NOT HERE!"

"That's the sixth-year girls dormitories," explained a laughing Perry. "Your dormitories are over there." He pointed to a different tunnel. "But before you leave, there are a few things you ought to know about Hufflepuff."

"The Fat Friar's our house ghost," began Kate. "He wasn't at the Welcoming Feast because he had, er, other obligations. Our Head of House is Aurora Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher. It used to be Pomona Sprout, but she had to retire. We kept her plants, though.

"Professor Sinistra will hand out your class schedules tomorrow. Now get some rest!"

Everyone split up - Ali said goodnight to Skoren and Levi and headed to a door to the right with some other first year girls. The two boys were joined by three others, and they started up the passageway.

It was long and windy, decorate on all sides by Hufflepuff banners and even more plants. Finally, they arrived at a circular barrel door that was painted yellow. They opened it and stepped inside.

A few minutes later, Levi and Skoren had claimed the two four-poster beds by the single large window, which was halfway under the lake. Everyone gasped in surprise when an ethereal creature floated past them.

"That's a mermaid," whispered Fabian Nartrodder.

The boys stared in awe as the mermaid floated by again, lit up by the eerie green light from the water. Suddenly it was all cut off as a giant pink thing streamed past the window.

"It's the giant squid!" breathed a boy named Charlie Minneal.

"Ugh, _Squid_," Skoren said, shuddering. He pulled the curtains closed. "I don't know about you lot, but I need to get some sleep. We start classes tomorrow."

"'Night, then."

"G'night."

"See you in the morning."

Levi pulled the curtains around his bed closed and lay there, thinking about all that had happened that day. The people in his dorm didn't seem angry with him, just avoiding contact. Ali and Skoren had forgiven him, but he doubted the Rose or Blake would…

He fell asleep, dreaming dreams of dementors with Blake's and Rose's faces, Hannah Longbottom's face appearing under the Sorting Hat, and Minerva McGonagall killing him with a flick of her wand.

Breakfast in the Great Hall was utter mayhem. The first year Hufflepuffs were at the back of a long line stretching towards a harrassed-looking Professor Sinistra, who was writing out schedules for the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students. Finally, it was Levi's turn.

Over kippers and pancakes, Ali, Skoren, and Levi looked at their schedules.

"Right now we've got Potions with the Ravenclaws… then double Herbology with the Gryffindors _and_ the Slytherins… then Charms… Transfiguration… then Astronomy! Blimey, it's at midnight!"

"Oh, I hope I do well in Astronomy!" Ali said nervously. "Professor Sinistra's our Head of House."

"Oh, come off it," Skoren said derisively. "All these classes will be a piece of cake."

But by the end of Potions, Skoren was singing a different tune.

"That… was… terrible," he said, scurrying away from the dungeon as fast as he could.

"Agreed," Levi said miserably.

"Totally," Ali sighed. "For one thing, Professor Cruzatte is just…"

No one could exactly describe Professor Pierre Cruzatte. He was tall with long blond hair, and had a thick French accent. He practically danced across the room, pirouetting to each and every cauldron. Towards the end of class, in a fit of passion, he had grabbed an armful of leafy potion ingredients and flung them in the air. Most of them landed on Charlie Minneal, who immediately grew large hives all over his body.

"And there was that portrait behind me that kept telling me how terrible I was," Skoren added.

"Severus Snape!" Ali said.

"That was Severus Snape?" Skoren said disbelievingly. "I can't believe it - I got dissed by a _painting_…"

Levi said nothing, walking quickly towards Greenhouse One, where he would meet with Rose Weasley and Blake Finnigan for the first time since he was Sorted…

The Gryffindors were already there. Levi scanned the crowd for Rose and Blake, but as soon as he found them turned away and started whispering. A moment later a group of Slytherins crested the hill near the greenhouses. Levi could see a glum-looking Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy trekking towards him.

Suddenly Greenhouse Four opened and a group of third-years trooped out, led by none other than James Potter. Professor Longbottom followed them out and gestured to the first-years to enter Greenhouse One. In the confusion of two moving crowds, Levi felt himself grabbed and separated from Ali and Skoren. Suddenly he found James Potter's face thrust in his.

"Listen, _Umbridge_," he snarled. "I know what your mother did."

"W-w-what?" he asked weakly.

"She was a witch as evil as Voldemort," James continued. "Good thing she was sent to Azkaban, the-"

"Don't talk about my mother like that," Levi said angrily.

"I know that you're just like her," James whispered manically.

"W-w-w-w-what?" Levi said again.

"So if you know what's good for you, don't even think about _talking_ to Rose. And if you do-" Here James stopped and drew a line across his throat.

The boy dropped him and left without another word. Rubbing his head in pain and confusion, Levi entered Greenhouse One, where the first-years were already divided into groups.

"Why are you late, Mr. Umbridge?" Professor Longbottom asked immediately. Levi knew immediately that he was just like Professor McGonagall and James - he hated him.

"I - ah - a third-year-"

"Excuses!" barked Professor Longbottom. "Fifteen points from Hufflepuff. You may join Miss Macmillan's group."

Levi went to join Ali, pulling on his dragonhide gloves.

"We're transplanting Skinveil balloon pods into richer compost so that they will grow to a large enough size to be used as the only safe way to store a bezoar," recited Ali very quickly.

He got to work immediately, pulling up the balloon-like plants from one planter and transferring them to the ones that Ali was efficiently filling with mooncalf dung.

He looked up for a brief break and noticed that Skoren was working incredibly, doing all the jobs himself. Professor Longbottom noticed as well and said, "Good work, Mr. Zabini. Twenty points to Hufflepuff."

"We need to talk."

The voice, barely a whisper, came from behind his ear. Levi jumped about three feet in the air.

"Who said-?" he looked around wildly.

"It's me, Rose, under an invisibility cloak," the voice explained.

"How'd you get one of those?" he asked.

"It was Harry Potter's. I nicked it from Albus Potter's trunk."

"Can I bring Ali and Skoren?"

"Yeah, sure. Just _not_ Blake. I'll be behind Greenhouse Six."

When she left, Levi, relieved that Rose was at least talking to him, kicked Skoren from under the table. When he looked up, Levi nodded his head towards the door. Skoren nodded and kicked Ali.

_"What?"_ She mouthed to him. Skoren pointed outside.

Ali said, "Professor Longbottom, sir, may I go to the bathroom?"

Skoren then said, "Me too, Professor?"

"And me?" added Levi.

"Yes, yes," Professor Longbottom said distractedly. A Slytherin first-year's Skinveil had inflated so rapidly that it had knocked the child out of his chair, and he was concentrating on both deflating the balloon sac as well as applying an herb mixture to the bruise on the Slytherin's head.

As he turned, Levi got a thinly-veiled look of disgust from Blake. Evidently, another person did not forgive him for being the child of Dolores Umbridge.

"What's up?" Skoren demanded immediately after the door had closed.

"Rose has an invisibility cloak, and she wants us to meet her behind Greenhouse Six."

The trio walked towards the storage greenhouse, where strange smells were in hanging in the air. With a flourish, Rose Weasley removed the invisibility cloak, making Ali start.

"What is it?"

"It's the entire Gryffindor house, they're all such gits…" Rose said hopelessly. "James threatens me if I want to be your friend, and Blake is muttering all the time about how he shouldn't have trusted-"

"He was right not to have trusted him," a voice interrupted.

"J-James?" Rose gasped.

Levi groaned inwardly as James Potter stepped into view again. Now he was probably going to be beaten up.

"Don't touch him," Rose said fiercely, but James simply replied, "You don't know him, Rosie. He'll hurt you."

"What has he ever done to you?" she asked angrily. James was holding Levi's hands behind his back.

"Well…" James thought for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "It's more the fact that he _exists_, if you know what I mean."

The words seemed painfully familiar to Levi, but all thoughts of them were destroyed when James dragged him onto the open grassland below the greenhouses.

"Duel. Me, you. Right now."

Levi's head was throbbing with the rush of hate he felt emanating from James, who drew his wand.

James yelled with all his might, "_Stupefy!_"

Levi saw the jet of red light heading for the space directly between his eyebrows, and ducked just in time.

James' voice apparently carried, as the students in Greenhouse One poured out to watch. Professor Longbottom hurried down the hill towards them.

James continued yelling jinxes at him.

"_Vespertilionem!_" Bats attacked his face.

"_Debiles pedibus!_" He suddenly could not stand.

Professor Longbottom raced towards them in order to stop the fight, when a spell jumped into Levi's head. A random one he had never heard.

"_EXPECTO DEMENTOR!_"

A long, low moan. A swirling, foggy mist. Tattered, black robes.


	5. 5

Professor McGonagall was furious.

"Fifty points from Hufflepuff for the outrageous offense of calling a dementor to the grounds!" she had shrieked at him. "A _dementor_, Mr. Umbridge!"

But worse than her screaming rage, worse than the cold looks he received in the common room that night, was the Howler that Skoren received the very next morning.

They hadn't noticed the small slip of red paper, for Fabian had received an enormous amount of mail from his relatives in Wales.

"I've got _hundreds_," he had said disbelievingly, staring at the pile of letters and the hooting owls. "I haven't even met half of them yet."

But then, sure enough, a red slip of paper fluttered down until it landed neatly on the top of Skoren's scrambled eggs.

"Oh _no_," he whispered in horror.

"Open it, before it explodes!" urged Ali.

"Are you mad?" Skoren said, staring at her. "Better it explodes than I get yelled at."

"No, you don't understand, the message comes out even after it-"

But the rest of her explanation was drowned out by the loud explosion from the letter. The scraps fell to Skoren's plate, but a deep, booming voice started to yell afterwards.

"YOU HAVE BROUGHT DISGRACE ON THE WHOLE FAMILY!" It had screamed. "YOU CALL A BOY WHO HAS SUMMONED A DEMENTOR TO THE GROUNDS A _FRIEND_? AFTER BEING IMPERIUSED DURING THE SECOND WAR, AFTER WORKING TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH TO REGAIN OUR REPUTATION, YOU HAVE THE _NERVE_ TO POSSIBLY RUIN IT ALL? DO NOT DARE TO TALK OR BE FRIENDLY WITH THAT BOY! DO NOT DARE!"

There was a silence, until Ali whispered, "Is it over?"

As if on cue, a new, high-pitched voice rang out instead.

"WHAAAAAAAAT?" Skoren's mother had shrieked. "YOU'RE IN HUFFLEPUFF! THAT BUNCH OF CURMUDGEONLY OLD FOOLS! NOTHING GREAT EVER COMES OF HUFFLEPUFFS! THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. AND ALWAYS WILL BE, DODDERING IDIOTS WHO WILL NEVER, _EVER_ AMOUNT TO ANYTHING! YOU ARE A !"

The voice faded away as the scraps turned to ash on Skoren's food. He was pale with shock.

Suddenly a harsh laugh erupted from a different table. A group of Gryffindors was laughing at Skoren's wide-eyed face. Levi scowled as soon as he had noticed that among them were James and Blake. He stood up in anger.

"What're gonna do, Umbridge?" sneered James. "Throw another dementor at me?"

Levi froze, the color draining from his face. He looked towards the teacher's table. None of the Professors were paying the exchange any attention, except for McGonagall and Longbottom, who were both smiling faintly. Despite himself, Levi was outraged. A _teacher_ was rooting for him to get pushed and shoved!

He sat down again without a word. Ali looked at him sympathetically.

Skoren, however, was still staring at where the Howler had exploded.

"Last class of the day – Transfiguration," Ali said wearily.

"Oh joy," Levi said bitterly. "I get to spend time with my favorite Gryffindors, along with McGonagall! Should be fun."

"She'll probably give us tons of homework," Skoren said gloomily. He was looking marginally better, only because they had just finished with Herbology. Already it was obvious that he excelled in that class – Professor Longbottom made an effort to heap praise on Skoren while deliberately avoiding speaking Levi's name.

As they wandered down the corridor, Ali decided to list their homework.

"Okay, we've got the essay on Boil Cures for Cruzatte, seven inches," she began.

"Don't remind me," Levi groaned. Potions was easily his worst class so far.

"And that 12-inch essay on the Laffo Food Revolution for Binns. We have to sketch and label a drawing of a Crustacean Pine for Longbottom, practice the Levitation charm for Flitwick, and write an eight-inch essay and observation chart about Saturn's moons for Sinistra."

"What, is that all?" Skoren said sarcastically. "We're here."

The three entered the classroom. Levi got what he had now taken to calling the 'usual reaction'. A stony, slightly angry look from the teacher, an outburst of sniggering from the class, and more than several glares. Levi took a deep breath, then sat down next to Rose and Skoren.

"There are six main branches of Transfiguration," began Professor McGonagall. "But we are starting with the least complex, Transfiguring inanimate objects into inanimate objects. We will begin with turning matchsticks into needles. Simple, yet useful. Mr. Finnigan, please take this box of matchsticks and pass them out to the class. The incantation is _lignum in metallum_. You may begin as soon as you receive a matchstick."

Blake handed out the matchsticks to everyone except Levi, who got his thrown at his eye. Rose rolled her eyes.

"Ignore him," she muttered.

Everyone began. Professor McGonagall paced up and down the rows, commenting on the pronunciation of one student's words or how to properly hold their wands. Levi pretended to do the incantation whenever she walked remotely near him, but put down his wand whenever she was turned around.

Finally she paced towards him. Levi's stomach dropped.

"Yes, Mr. Umbridge," Professor McGonagall said. "Let's see you do it."

Levi stared at his wand, eighteen inches long. Ollivander had said that it was good for Transfiguration. Well, he'd find out soon enough.

"_Lignum in metallum_."

The effect was instantaneous. Every single matchstick in the room was suddenly made of metal.

Professor McGonagall was speechless.

"Well… that is… fifteen points to Hufflepuff, Mr. Umbridge…"

"OUCH!" Blake exclaimed suddenly.

Levi looked. A needle was hovering behind his head, jabbing him not so gently. Rose winked at Levi and kept levitating the needle.

"Who's doing that?" Blake said, swatting at the needle.

"_Wingardium leviosa,_" whispered Ali, who motioned for Skoren and Levi to do the same.

Three more needles flew up and started attacking Blake, who was now frantically waving his arms.

"Who is doing that?" exclaimed Professor McGonagall.

Immediately all four stopped, smiling to themselves.

"Looks like we finished Flitwick's homework," whispered Skoren under his breath.

"That was brilliant!" Skoren said to Levi after class.

"It really was," Rose agreed.

"You, too," Skoren added to her. "I've never wanted to jab a person in the head more."

They had reached the place where the Gryffindors had to head up to their tower, and the Hufflepuffs down.

"See you at dinner, then," Rose said, and she left for the common room.

"Levi, that really was extraordinary," Ali continued as they walked down the endless staircases.

"Thanks," he said, embarrassed.

"Yeah, you got back at him after he laughed at my… uh…" Skoren trailed away, turning a bright shade of pink. They knew he was talking about the Howler.

"Skoren, what exactly…?"

"My parents were friends of the Malfoys," Skoren said quietly, motioning for them to take a detour for more privacy.

"The Malfoys?" Levi wondered. "I think I saw one of them go to Azkaban. He was kicking and screaming like he was a little child."

"That was Lucius Malfoy," Skoren said. "He went insane and started firing Killing Curses everywhere. They couldn't contain him. One of them hit my father's wife."

Ali gasped. "Oh, Skoren…"

"No, she wasn't my mother," Skoren said bitterly. "But he loved her. As ancient wizarding tradition forced him to do, he had to marry her sister. My mother. They never loved each other, not at all."

They were all silent for a bit, before he continued.

"My father's parents were Death Eaters, so we were under surveillance for the first eight years of my life. That's why he was so worried that you would ruin my reputation.

"And my mother, she was a Slytherin… My entire family were Slytherins, except for me. Her family was never convicted as Death Eaters, but she was very focused on blood purity and family lines. She thought that being a Hufflepuff would ruin the family forever. She… she disowned me."

"_No_!" Ali breathed.

"Yes," Skoren said, as bitter as ever. "You guys probably didn't notice, but there was a slip of paper within the Howler that was protected by an Impervius Charm. I'm no longer part of the House Zabini."

They were silent the rest of the way, until they reached the empty hall where the still life was.

"Banana, pear, grape, apple, orange, watermelon, peach, lemon," they recited.

"The poem's been changed to peach," Ali informed them. "_There once was a small little peach, who found that he loved to teach. It was tiny and pink, it loved to drink, but the blackboard it could never reach."_

"Nice," Skoren said as they entered the common room.

"Thanks," Ali said, before switching back to being serious. "Now we need to finish our homework. Let's start with the essay on the Laffo Revolution. Get your stuff."

"Not _Binns'_ homework," moaned Skoren, falling into an armchair near the fire. It was so patched and squishy that he practically disappeared into it.

"Eventually you're going to have to do it, so why not get it over with?"

"Fine," Skoren sighed, getting up from the armchair. "Let's get our textbooks, Levi,"

As they walked up the tunnel towards their dormitory, Skoren fondly rubbed some plants on their leaves, while Levi thought about all that Skoren had told them. His life sounded almost as awful as Levi's…

Strange, wasn't it? Levi had never thought of his life as being bad. It was simple and that was the way he liked it. There was Charles, his mum, the dementors, and the occasional pet Lobalug. And Azkaban.

But looking back on it all, he realized how much he had been missing. He hadn't had any friends, and his mum had constantly told him how back Hogwarts was, but being here, now, with people that liked him – and people that didn't – he knew that he was just being sheltered by an overprotective parent.

So his mum was the cruelest, evilest woman in the wizarding community. She hadn't done anything cruel to him.

Or had she?

Had she, by keeping him away from the world, stuck in a shack in the middle of a ceaselessly stormy ocean, hurt him in a way other than physically?

Yes.

**(For anyone who was wondering, in the last chapter, **_**Vespertilionem**_** was the Bat-Bogey Hex, and **_**Debiles Pedibus**_** was the Jelly-Legs Jinx. Don't forget, review are always appreciated!)**


	6. 6

**(A/N: This is where the story begins to unfold. Enjoy!)**

Fabian and Charlie were already snoring in their beds, Charlie's body framed by a pile of textbooks, quills, and papers.

"Looks like someone didn't finish their homework," Skoren whispered, grinning.

Levi bit back a laugh and walked to his bed, bathed, as always, in the green light of the lake. He grabbed _A History of Magic _and was about to head out of the room when Skoren gasped.

"Look!" He nearly shouted.

Levi turned his head to where Skoren was pointing. Outside the window was a mermaid, like the night before. But this one was pressed up against the window, saying something that only came out as bubbles.

"Get Ali," Skoren said hoarsely.

"She can't enter the boy's dorm-"

"Girls can enter the boy's dormitories, just not the other way around! Quick!"

Levi rushed out and barreled down the long, twisting hallway to the common room, hurtling past the numerous plants and banners. Finally he burst into the common room.

"Took you long enough!" Ali said. "Where's your textbook?"

"Skoren…sent…me," Levi breathed, gasping for breath.

"What is it?" Ali asked sharply.

"There's a mermaid on our window," Levi explained.

"On your window?" Ali said, a questioning look on her face.

"Yeah," Levi said, embarrassed. "He's just overreacting, I guess."

"No, I have to see this," she said. "If he's talking about…"

Muttering, she quickly left the room, walking swiftly up the passageway. Ignoring the curious looks of the other Hufflepuffs, Levi followed her.

When he got to the room, Ali was mouthing soundlessly at the mermaid.

"What on earth is going on here?" Levi asked Skoren.

"Well… I was talking to Priscilla Dorman, she's in Ali's dormitory, and she said she woke up one night and found Ali talking to a mermaid through their window."

"_Talking_?" Levi repeated incredulously.

"Well, more like mouthing," Skoren corrected. "Like she's doing now."

Suddenly, a melodious sound echoed through the room. It was a long, low hum, rich and deep. It was soon joined by a high hum, haunting and echoing. Unintelligible words were added into the mix, until it was a strange, lilting song.

The sounds were coming straight from Ali's mouth, and, Levi realized, from the mermaid's.

"Mermish," Skoren marveled.

The mermaid sung a final, impossibly high note, before turning its back on the Hufflepuff dormitory and disappearing into water.

"…Woah," Ali said after a while.

"Ali, did you, uh, by chance, study Mermish when you were young?" Levi asked quietly.

"No," She answered truthfully. "Just, yesterday… It all started flowing out of my mouth. But I didn't sing anything."

"Wait…" Skoren interrupted, his eyebrows furrowed. "Maybe… no… then it must mean…"

He trailed off, but a determined glint remained in his eye.

"Gotta go… library…"

And with that, he dashed off down the corridor.

By now, the other boys in Levi's dormitory had woken up, the Mermish song evidently being the cause.

Ali ushered Levi into the corridor, where she shut the barrel door tight.

"Listen," she hissed quietly. "The mermaid was telling me something. She said that a lost thing is at the bottom of the lake, half-buried in the sand. She says it's important for you to have, and it's just a couple hundred feet below this window."

"Well, why didn't she bring it up to the window?" Levi asked, annoyed.

"Oh, honestly," Ali sighed. "Haven't you read _Hogwarts, A History_?"

"No," Levi replied.

"Well, me neither," Ali admitted. "I just skimmed it. But I read that, for some reason, there's an extremely powerful Suction Charm on the lakebed around the school."

"Suction Charm?" Levi asked.

"If anyone tries to touch the sand, it would act like quick-acting quicksand and suck them under in a matter of seconds."

Skoren arrived at the doorway, red-faced and gasping for breath. "I was right," he said hoarsely.

"What?" Ali questioned immediately.

"Hold on," he said catching his breath. "Okay, so you know how one of the qualities of Hufflepuff is friendship and loyalty and stuff?"

"Yeah?" The other two said at the same time.

"Well, maybe that's why Ali could speak with the mermaid. I did the unthinkable and actually read a section of _Hogwarts, A History_, and found out that only English could be spoken in the Hufflepuff rooms. Any other language had to be a team effort."

"And?" Ali prompted.

"I tested out Mermish in the first-floor bathroom," Skoren said.

"How can _you_ speak Mermish?' Ali asked. "You don't know it."

"I can mimic really well," Skoren explained. "So I just made the same throat movement you did, and it came out like this."

He motioned for Ali to sing, and the two created a two-second harmony.

"That can't be right," he frowned. "Quick, come with me."

They dashed up the corridor, back through the common room, through the still life, and up to the first-floor boys bathroom.

"Listen to what it sounds like up here," Skoren instructed, and made the same throat-gargle.

A hideous, wrenching shriek came out of his throat.

"OH GOD!" Ali yelped, clapping her hands to her ears. "Some warning, please!"

Levi felt a strange tingling behind his eyes and nose, and in his ears as well. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, Skor," he panted.

"Sorry," he said, not looking as if he cared, "But that's not my main point. You see, Mermish comes out like that above-water _only_. So only in the dungeons or the basements can we hear Mermish in it's true form."

"That's great and all, but why does it matter?" Ali demanded.

"Well, think about it," Skoren continued, and Levi could sense that he was coming to his conclusion. "You met all the requirements _last_ night also. Underwater, with another mermaid, great, right?"

"Yeah?" Levi pressed.

"So why couldn't you sing?" he asked. "Why couldn't you do anything but mouth?"

"… I… I don't know," she responded after a moment's pause.

"So there's only one logical conclusion," Skoren said, in his element. "Someone knew about the mermaid. Someone knows you can speak Mermish. And someone didn't want that thing buried in the sand to be found."

**(Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated.)**


	7. 7

**(Okay, so if I've planned this out correctly, this story should only have 9-10 chapters, which means we're over halfway! Yay! Please review, because it motivates me and keeps me writing. This chapter will have a couple of random flashbacks, just showcasing life for the trio at Hogwarts. Those will be italicized. Read and enjoy!)**

The time at Hogwarts was flying by, and the professors were piling homework on them, leaving Ali, Skoren, and Levi no time to investigate the thing at the bottom of the lake. It was only three and a half months into school when Levi realized when they'd have time.

"The holidays," he said over breakfast. "Are you guys going back to your families?"

"No," Skoren said automatically. Since the Howler, he had not received any mail from his family at all. They seemingly had cut off all ties with him.

"I guess I don't blame them, really," when Ali had questioned him. "I mean, if it were _my _life hanging in balance, maybe I would do the same."

Ali was furious.

"If _only_ I knew how to write a Howler, oh, the Zabinis would be having one _heck_ of a year, I tell you…" she often muttered.

"Well…" Ali began, bringing Levi back to reality. "I probably will be. You guys can search for things in the library. Cruzatte gave you the permission forms, right?"

All three of them had ventured up to Cruzatte after Double Potions one Thursday, asking him if they could research a book. Levi still smiled faintly whenever he remembered the improvisation Ali had come up with.

_"Er, Professor?" Ali asked timidly._

_ "Ah yes, Miss Macmillaaaaaan?" he asked in a drawn-out voice, spreading his arms out and lifting his leg to create a 90-degree angle._

_ "We were wondering if you could… if you could give us permission to access the restricted section of the library," Skoren continued._

_ "Ah yes, Mister Zabin… whaaaaaaaaaat?" he exclaimed suddenly. "The restricted section? Whatever for?"_

_ They looked at each other nervously. Cruzatte had demonstrated the Elixir to Enduce Euphoria to the sixth-years right before them, and had hoped that it would have loosened him up enough that he wouldn't ask._

_ "Er…" Levi started, but then he trailed away._

_ "Mister Umbridge, in _theeeeatre_, you do not _mumble_ your words," he reprimanded._

_ "Er… that is to say… we wanted, ah…"_

_ "Oh, shut up, you inarticulate _bumble_," Cruzatte drawled dismissively._

_ "We wanted the book _Contemporary Dance in Ancient Rituals_," Ali blurted out._

_ Cruzatte's protuberant swiveled unnaturally towards Ali._

_ "Ohhhhhhhhh," he said. "Ohhhhh indeed. _Contemporary Dance in Ancient Rituals_," he said happily. "Yes, a good selection if I had ever heard one. Here…" he stopped and wrote out his signature three times. _**(A/N: I decided that Cruzatte isn't French. If you've ever seen A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel, he talks like Snape and moves like Lucius Malfoy.) **

_"That was too much," Levi laughed, falling to the floor with laughter after Cruzatte had shut the door._

_ Skoren couldn't even speak, and Ali looked pleased with herself._

_ "Well, I try," she said, pretending to be modest._

"Oh, Nubia's here!" Ali called, pointing to the flurry of owls descending on the Great Hall.

"Nubia?" Levi inquired.

"My parents' owl. They named her Nubia after a place in Egypt and Sudan," She explained.

She carefully took the letter off of Nubia, stroked her appreciatively, and opened the letter.

"Oh," she said after a moment. "Mum and Dad are going on a vacation for their anniversary. I'll be staying here." She smiled. "Looks like we can _all_ search the restricted section."

"_Nothing_!" Skoren moaned, shutting a final book. "There's nothing on this shelf either!"

"SHH!" the voice of the ancient librarian, Madam Pince, echoed into the library as she shuffled past the corridor, glaring at them.

It was the day before break, and their professors had given them homework due after Christmas, so they had ignored it in favor of looking through the library.

"Whatcha doin'?" came a voice, which made all three jump,

It was Rose, carrying a stack of textbooks.

"Oh, hey Rose," Ali said, breathing hard. "You startled me."

"We're looking for information," Levi explained, deliberately trying to be as vague as possible.

"What for?" Rose pressed.

"Er… something we found," Levi said.

"Oh, come on. Tell me."

The three looked at each other, nodded, and turned towards her.

"Well, it started when I woke up one night…" Ali began.

"Woah," Rose said, her eyes wide, when they had finished. "That's _intense_."

"Yeah," Levi said, laughing a little. "So now we're trying to find out what it is, and how to get it."

"Maybe you could send a creature or something down to get it somehow…?" Rose suggested.

"Well, you're not thinking logically," A new voice spoke up, behind them.

All four jumped and turned on the spot. It was Blake, his eyes narrowed.

"What do you want, _Finnigan_?" Skoren hissed.

"It's just that you guys were being a tad dumb," Blake continued, smiling coldly.

"Blake, just hurry up and tell us so you can go away," Rose said impatiently.

"Think about it," Blake continued. "_Zabini_ over there-" here he paused and glanced contemptuously at Skoren, who hissed and dug his nails into the table "-said that someone knew that you were trying to find whatever it is. Even if there _were_ books in here about it - which I doubt - the person would've removed them as soon as they found out you knew about it."

"I hate to admit it, Finnigan, but you're right," Ali sighed. "Thanks."

"Now, I'm going to help you," Blake said. "Without me, you'll be like that Floundergrass that Fabian messed up yesterday. Dead."

"No wa-" Skoren began, but he was cut off by Levi.

"He knows about it, he could blab to anyone about it!" Levi whispered furiously, their backs turned away from Blake.

"That's blackmail!" Skoren hissed back, shooting a glare over his shoulder. Blake returned it with a smirk.

"We've got to accept it," Ali said, sighing with defeat. She turned around. "Alright, Finnigan, you can help us. Just don't go mouthing off to Potter and the rest of your friends whenever Levi talks to Rose, _comprendo_?" She ended her sentence with the drawing of her wand.

Behind her, Levi and Skoren shot each other surprised, but appreciative glances.

"Okay, okay, cool it," Blake said, backing away from Ali's drawn wand. "I won't tell."

"Will you now?" A chillingly familiar voice said behind Blake.

Without missing a beat, Ali pointed her wand at James and said, "_Vespertilionem_."

Immediately several large bogeys flew out of James' nose, sprouted wings, and flew at his face.

"ACK!" he yelled. "Gerremoffofme!" He poked his wand at them frantically, but to no avail. The bogeys attacked his face relentlessly.

"DUELING IN THE LIBRARY?" shrieked Madam Pince's voice. Ali stowed her wand quickly, as the librarian rounded the corner. Only seeing James with his and drawn, she picked up her walking stick and began swinging at him.

Grinning from ear to ear, Ali pointed her wand at the boys behind James. "_Debiles pedibus. Petrificus totalus._"

The desired effects happened quickly, and the five of them - Blake included - darted away, each smiling as wide as they ever had.

"Ali, that was brilliant!" yelled Levi once they were in the Hufflepuff common room.

"You _are_ the best in our year at Charms," Skoren marveled.

"You're a genius, girl," Rose said high-fiving her.

"Thanks," Blake said quietly.

Ali stopped smiling and turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"James," Blake said, suddenly angry. "He threatens me all the time. With the hexes that you used. He's… he's…"

"A no-good lowlife who has nothing better to do than intimidate people who are twice the person he'll ever be?" Rose offered.

"Yeah," Blake said, exhaling. "He's a nightmare. I wish I was a Hufflepuff with you guys."

"Thanks," Skoren said, and for the first time since the Hogwarts Express, he gave Blake a genuine smile.

"Uh, Blake?" Levi asked. "Are we… cool?"

"Yeah," he said, giving Levi a warm smile. "I mean, James told me to act that way around you. At first I agreed, but… you're a really nice guy." He frowned a bit. "The only weird thing was that _expecto dementor_ curse you sent at him…"

"THAT'S IT!" Ali shrieked, making everyone jump a foot into the air. The other Hufflepuffs, by now used to the three first-year's antics, just settled down and continued with whatever they were doing.

"Hold on," she said breathlessly, and raced off to her dormitory.

"You two are _always_ doing that," Levi complained good-naturedly. "Running off somewhere without explaining anything."

But in a moment Ali was back, holding a book in her hands.

"_Ministry Classifications of Creatures Throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, Edition #756_," Rose read. "What is it?"

"Look," Ali said excitedly, flipping through to the index. The index was marked from 'X' to 'XXXXX'. "Look at the five-X classifications.

"Acromantula," Levi murmured. "Basilisk. Chimaera. Dementor. DEMENTOR!"

"Page 137," Rose urged Ali, who obligingly flipped there.

"What is it?" Skoren asked, annoyed that everyone except him understood.

"Don't you get it?" Ali said impatiently. "Levi can summon a dementor. If dementors…"

"OH!" Skoren nearly yelled, finally understanding. "Gotcha."

"_Look!_" Blake hissed, pointing at a passage. "Dementors are known for their resistance to protective charms, the Dark Arts, enchantments, and many other types of magic. It is because of this that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named used them in both Wizarding Wars."

Everyone looked excitedly at each other.

"_Oh my god_!" squealed Rose suddenly, pointing at a different paragraph. "Dementors are impervious to fire, electrical shock, and water. Water!"

"It's perfect!" Ali exclaimed, slamming the book shut. "We know how to get the thing under our window…"

She trailed away and her eyes glazed over.

"Uh… Ali? Ali?" Rose asked anxiously, waving her hand in front of the Hufflepuff's face. "No use," she said, shrugging. "Wait…"

Ali began mouthing again, her eyes focusing in.

"It's the mermaid!" Skoren realized. "Quick! Follow her."

They crept after her, towards the boy's dormitory, all walking as quietly and slowly as she did.

"What's going on?" asked a voice in front of them. It was Charlie Minneal.

"Go to the common room!" Levi whisper. "It's… Kate Swisher!" he blurted out, improvising wildly. "She wants to talk to you and Fabian."

"Oh," Charlie said, alarmed. Kate was known among the first-years for her fiery temper. He turned around and raced up the hallway. "I'll get Fabian," he called over his shoulder.

Soon enough, the two passed them by, walking nervously towards the common room.

"Quick," Blake said as soon as they were out of hearing range. "Ali, move faster."

Surprisingly, she obliged, and soon the five were in the dormitory.

"_Colloportus_," Blake muttered quietly, and the door locked behind them.

Not surprisingly, the mermaid was there, mouthing frantically at them. Soon, the music began, and Ali went into the trance-like state, her eyes glazed as she sung and swayed in place.

There was a flurry of movement behind the window. A dark shape passed over it, plunging the dormitory into darkness. As soon as the eerie green light had disappeared, Ali came back to her senses.

"She has to come back!" Ali urged. "She was about to tell me something important…"

But she trailed off as a grisly scene unfolded in front of them.

The object blocking them was none other than the giant squid. It swerved around to meet the mermaid, who stared back in horror. She attempted to swim away, but a tentacle lashed out and grabbed her.

"We have to save her!" Ali shrieked. "Levi, DO SOMETHING!"

Something shivered in the back of his mind, and it was like a curtain parted in his brain, showing him what to do.

Without realizing it, Levi lifted his wand, pointed it at the window, and said, "_Reducto_."

The effect was instantaneous. The window shattered into a million pieces. Blake bellowed and ducked down, dragging Skoren and Rose with him. Ali screamed and shouted, "_PROTEGO!_"

Her Shield Charm held up only a little while under the incredible speed of the glass. Once the pieces of window had fallen completely, there was a stillness. Then, the final rune wards broke, and the lake of Hogwarts came crashing in.

**(Well, things got a good deal more exciting, didn't they? Please review, as it motivates me and keeps me writing.)**

**~PPB**


	8. 8

"_PROTEGO TOTALUM!_" Ali shrieked desperately. Suddenly, the water was distorted, as if attempting to burst through a thicker, somehow twisted window.

"We have to get out of here," Ali urged frantically, pulling Blake to his feet. "Thank heavens Flitwick gave me some seventh-year work to do last class, or I wouldn't have known that one."

As Blake and Rose gaped at Ali, who blushed pink at their mutterings of "seventh-year" and "wow", Levi walked over and peered through Ali's strengthened Shield Charm.

"That water is absolutely _charged_ with Runes," he murmured to himself. He turned to the others. "Lake Hogwarts is not natural."

"What?" Rose gasped. "But it's been here since the-"

"Since the time of the founders," Levi finished for her. "Which means they probably created it. Come here."

"We don't have enough time," Ali murmured nervously, but she and the rest of the first-years crowded close to the makeshift window.

"Look, there's the runespoor," Levi pointed out. The rune in question was struggling against Ali's charm. "And there's the demiguise," he said.

"_Wicked_!" Skoren said, despite the situation, and Levi smiled.

"Maybe… maybe the founders put this lake here to guard the thing stuck in the sand," Levi said, dawning on a conclusion.

"You think so?" Rose said, interested. "Oh no!" She gasped and pointed towards the Protego Totalum. It was distorting more and more.

"The runes are… they're _melting _it," Ali said in horror.

"Right then, we need to evacuate this room," Blake said, taking charge. "Let's go. Ali, you keep bolstering that window. Skoren, you find some plants in the common room that can be used as a sufficient shield. Rose, you go to the Staff Room and fetch Sinistra and McGonagall. Levi, you and I will get everything out. Let's go, people!"

Rose and Skoren scurried out of the room, Skoren already muttering, "Elemental Juggle-vine… maybe some Spoorsilk Cacti… yeah, and a Bludgertree… _oh_, I've got to use those Wallberry bushes…"

Smiling in spite of the situation, Levi turned to Ali, who was pointing at the water and muttering, "_Protego Totalum. Fianto Duri. Fianto Duri Maxima."_

"Okay, so neither of us are a dab hand at Charms, like she is," Blake began, pointing at Ali, "But we're not as bad as Rose. Now, what was that spell that Ali used to throw a trifle at my face. Oh yeah - _Locomotor Levi's Trunk!_"

Immediately, if a little slowly, Levi's trunk wobbled into the air.

"Hold on, Ali, can you Summon my stuff for me?" Levi asked.

Ali paused from her spell-casting and muttered, "_Accio Levi's things_."

An assortment of quills, papers, books, letters, and other things landed at her feet.

"_Locomotor my stuff_," Levi said, pointing his wand at the pile, which, to his surprise, floated into the air. He directed it into the trunk and shut it.

"_Depulso_," the boys said together, and the trunk soared out of the door and down the corridor, making Skoren, who was carrying a pot containing a fuzzy purple and orange cactus, have to dive to the ground to avoid it. He had already got a substantial amount of plants near the doorway, and was fetching even more. Rose had not returned yet.

They continued in this manner, levitating items into trunks and Banishing them. Ali had cast so many spells that their very presence was making the air shimmer. Skoren had set the plants up in strategic places around the room. The Wallberry bushes had grown gigantic brick walls from their stems, protecting the beds and other items that Blake and Levi couldn't move - there were Permanent Sticking Charms on lots of the things in the dormitory - like the walls of Azkaban. The purple and orange Spoorsilk Cacti, which acted as both homes for Runespoor young and as a water storage tank, had some degree of sentience, and could create fabulous images just by being touched. However, as Skoren explained, it could fill with water until it was seven meters tall, making it necessary.

Rose arrived, red-faced, with Professor McGonagall behind her, visibly distressed.

"Where's Sinistra?" Blake asked immediately.

"Looks like someone forgot what Fainting Fancies looked like," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "Madam Pomfrey's said that Sinistra's the first one to actually eat four whole ones."

"My lord," McGonagall said, examining the work in the room. "Who set up these Shield Charms?"

"I did, Professor," Ali said nervously.

"Extremely impressive," she remarked. "And these plants - I distinctly remember from my seventh year that the Elemental Juggle-vine was highly dangerous and attempted to strangle anyone who touched it without dragonhide gloves." She looked at Skoren sharply. "You _did_ put on gloves, didn't you?"

"No, Professor," Skoren said. "The Juggle-vines were quite docile."

"And how on earth," McGonagall continued, "Did you manage to get everything out from the room?"

"Some Locomotor charms, Professor," Levi chimed in.

"If I recall correctly, Professor Flitwick was telling me how his fourth-years were having a _very_ difficult time with the Locomotor charm."

"We were doing them together," Blake said.

"Well, what with this impressive display of magic, I would have thought that you would use your exceptional Tranfiguration skills, Mr. Umbridge," McGonagall said, staring at him.

"Oh, yeah," Levi said, faintly embarrassed.

Under the watchful eye of Professor McGonagall, who despised him despite his talent in her subject, Levi accidentally dropped his wand. Nevertheless, he pointed at one of the Wallberry bushes and said, "_Metallum_."

He didn't hold his wand, but a silvery light shot out of the palm of his hand, and hit the plant squarely in the stem. It instantly became encased in metal.

"Wha… buh… huh?" McGonagall sputtered, speechless.

Levi grinned. "_Metallum. Metallum. Metallum._" Each time, he merely opened his palm and turned it towards a different Wallberry, fortifying them even more.

"This… this is _highly_ unusual," McGonagall finally managed, albeit in a high, squeaky voice. "First of all, you are doing wandless magic, which not even I could manage sometimes. Second of all, there is no spell known as theMetal Spell, which means that your magic is potent enough that you can merely say a word in Latin and what you want will happen."

"Really? _Wicked!_" Blake shouted. "Levi, can you do - other Transfiguration?"

"_Loxodonta africana_," Levi said, pointing at a bed, which promptly turned into an elephant.

"WOAH!" Blake yelled in glee. Skoren cackled with delight, and Ali grinned broadly. Rose was rolling on the floor, unashamedly pointing at Professor McGonagall's expression, which was remarkably similar to one who sees a train speeding straight towards them.

But the rumbling of the room brought them all back to reality. Levi Transfigured the elephant back into his bed.

"I think," Professor McGonagall said, "That I must call the rest of the staff here. Yes, and Potter and Weasley. Granger too…"

"Why?" Levi asked. "Are our defenses not strong enough?"

"No," she said, distractedly. "Your defenses are stronger than I could possibly imagine. And that-" here she set her jaw "-is why they must come here immediately."

"_Blimey_," Ron Weasley muttered for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

He had just watched Dolores Umbridge's son Transfigure his daughter into a pair of scissors, then Transfigure her back.

"As you can see," Professor McGonagall said, "These children are more than gifted. Mr. _Umbridge_ possesses a great deal of talent in Transfiguration. Alexandra Macmillan is exceptionally gifted in Charms. Skoren Zabini has an uncanny ability with plants, even more so than you, Professor Longbottom. As for Blake Finnigan and Rose Weasley, they have demonstrated a knack for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Mr. Finnigan also displays a knack for pyrotechnics, not unlike his father." She nodded to Seamus Finnigan, who was now Head of Magical Games and Sports.

"Currently, I am having Mr. Zabini work with seventh-year plants and beyond those," Professor Longbottom said.

"Ali is working on seventh-year charms," confided Professor Flitwick.

"And Levi can do wandless magic," finished McGonagall.

The gasp that this remark elicited distracted Levi from realizing that this was the first time McGonagall had said his first name to his face.

"A demonstration, Mr. Umbridge," she requested, but Levi knew instinctively that it was a command. His mother had often disguised things like that.

"You're a lot like my mum, do you know?" he said cheekily, before dropping his wand and Transfiguring McGonagall into a walking stick.

"My lord," Flitwick gasped, backing away from Levi.

"_Blimey_," Ron said again, while Hermione and Harry looked at Levi with interest.

"Hmm…" Levi said, and opened his palm at Flitwick. A skin-toned beam shot out from his hand and flew towards Flitwick. There was a blinding flash of light, and the half-goblin had become fully human.

"I'm tall," he said, marveling at his new found height.

"Levi, turn them back," pleaded Ali. "They're _teachers_."

"Fine," he sighed, and Untransfigured them.

"Completely unacceptable-" McGonagall shrieked.

"Do it again!" Flitwick begged at the same time.

It was too much for Rose and Skoren. They fell to the floor laughing. Soon, everyone was laughing; even McGonagall had cracked a smile.

"Fifty points to Hufflepuff, Mr. Umbridge," she said.

"Why?" Levi managed to squeak before falling into laughter again.

"For sheer cheek," she replied, and then, for the first time in living memory, Professor McGonagall laughed.


	9. 9

By the next two days, the five first-years were the talk of the school. Embarrassingly enough, someone started the name 'The Indestructibles', and soon that was what was being shouted at them in the halls.

"Honestly, people have forgotten all about me being Umbridge's son and the _expecto dementor_ thing just because I can do a bit of magic," Levi said in the common room one night.

"Levi, it's not just a _bit _of magic, you can do wandless magic! That's incredible!" Ali exclaimed, braiding her hair. She had finished all her homework except her seventh-year Charms homework, which was to master nonverbal spells by the next class

"Thanks," he replied, blushing. His only homework left was the foot-long essay for Binns about Merglite the Indecisive, having long since finished McGonagall's homework on mammal-to-mammal Transfiguration. Skoren was sitting with a desk Levi Conjured for him, carefully and methodically pruning a plant that had frequent mood swings.

"Really, that's how the original mood rings were created," Skoren had explained. "Some of this plant was crushed and the juice was used to-"

"I'M GOING TO BE CRUSHED?" The plant had howled, and it had gone hysterics again. It had taken fifteen minutes to calm it down.

"Speaking of your spell, when are we going to to send the dementor to get the thing?" Ali asked. "I can't get any more clues because… well…" She trailed off, tears glistening in her eyes.

As soon as Levi hit the window with the Reductor Curse, the squid had, incredibly, managed to resist the flow of water and escape, the mermaid still in his clutches.

"Yeah," Levi said, attempting to comfort her. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," Ali said, wiping her eyes. Suddenly she stood up, a glint in her eye. "But I'm tired of not knowing! I'll send a message to Blake and Rose at dinner and we'll meet up by the lake.

"Ali, I'm warning you, there may be some difficulty with that," Levi reminded her. "When I checked through the new window, the runes seemed a whole lot stronger."

"Well, it can't hurt to try," she retorted fiercely, and Levi agreed.

As soon as they sat down to eat dinner, Ali grabbed a handful of asparagus and some mashed potatoes. She put them down on her plate and spelled out, 'MEET AT LAKE AT MIDNIGHT.'

"_Ibi manent in aeternum_," Ali hissed, once again demonstrating the Indestructibles' talent for creating spells by merely speaking Latin. The Permanent Sticking Charm worked, and Ali carefully Levitated it under the table and to Rose's foot, where she jabbed her ankle several times. Rose picked it up, showed it to Blake, and gave a thumbs up under the table.

"She got it," Ali said excitedly. "Finally, we're going to find out!"

Unknown to them, someone was watching from another table. They held an Invisible Extended Ear, a new product from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, to their ear, listening in to the entire exchange.

There would be more than five people at the lake that night.

"_Chamaeleo_," Ali said, pointing her wand at herself. The Bedazzling Hex did it's job - now, whatever part of the wall Ali was blocking, she looked identical to it. She slowly moved around.

"Can you see me?"

"Not at all - _Chamaeleo_!" Skoren said, pointing to himself with his wand.

Only Levi was left. He stowed his wand in the wand pocket of his robes.

"I'm going to try something new," he said. He pointed at himself and did not say anything. A moment later, his silent Bedazzling Hex had come into effect.

"Nonverbal, wandless magic!" the place where Ali should be said in amazement. "What next?"

"Quick!" Skoren hissed, and they set off into Hogwarts.

When they arrived, Blake was complaining, "-tired, cold, it's about to pour rain, _and they're not here_!"

"Oh yes we are," Levi said behind him, in the creepiest voice he could manage.

"ACK!" Blake yelled. "Where are you?"

"_Finite_," all three said at the same time, and appeared in front of Rose and Blake.

"Good point, Blake, it _is _about to rain," Skoren remarked. "Ali?"

"_Impervius Maxima_," she said, and soon a shimmering shield was protecting them from the oncoming droplets of water.

"Now, Levi, are you ready to do this?" Ali asked, worried.

"I- I don't know," he confessed. "It's scary, being able to talk and be friends with dementors, honestly. I mean - they were my very first friends. And now this thing might have the answer."

"Levi, the mermaid never-"

"I _know_, Ali, but somehow I think this is meant for us. For _all_ of us."

There was silence.

"Ali, where's the Hufflepuff common room?"

Silently, they walked along the shoreline, until they got to the very place where it stopped and met one of the Hogwarts walls.

"Well, I thought we might go down to the bottom and see it, first," Ali said quietly.

"How?" Blake asked nervously.

"Well, I was… experimenting with Professor Flitwick-"

Skoren snorted. "Flitwick's in love with you, I tell you. He'll do anything for you."

Ali shot him a glare. "I didn't ask for your opinion. _Anyway_, I've created a version of the Bubblehead Charm meant for the entire body. I told him that it was to dive down to the bottom of the lake for Skoren and get some interesting plants."

"Imagine what McGonagall would say if you asked her that," Skoren said, smirking. He then imitated her Scottish burr, yelling, "Absolutely not! Twenty points from Hufflepuff!"

"_SHH!_" Ali quieted. "The incantation's the same as the Bubblehead Charm. _Bulla_."

The Latin word for bubble actually came out of her mouth. It convulsed, and the words became a large glimmering bubble which surrounded Ali completely. As soon as the gap close and she was completely surrounded, it shrunk in on her and became skin-tight.

"It's easier to move when it's skin-tight," she explained. "Come on! We don't have all night!"

Everyone cast the 'Bubblebody Charm', as Ali called it, and began wading into the water.

The person stepped out from behind a tree.

"_Bulla_," they whispered. "_Chamaeleo_."

The caster wasn't as strong at the charms as the Indestructibles, but they worked, and they doubted that if they lay low, the five wouldn't see them.

"Brilliant," he whispered, and waded into the water silently.

Levi was right - the water was so charged with Runes it was like walking through electricity.

"No wonder McGonagall banned swimming in the lake," yelped Blake. "How are we going to make any progress."

"I wonder… no, maybe… okay," Skoren muttered to himself. "Everybody stand back. I'm going to use a Rune."

"You know Runics?" Ali gasped.

"_jā_," he said simply. The word _yes_ radiated into everyone's mind.

"Okay," Skoren said, setting his jaw. "_banōn_."

_'Bane,'_ a voice whispered in Levi's head, and the runes in the water were suddenly gone.

"It disables Runic Wards," Skoren explained. "It's like… the Killing Curse."

As everyone pondered this, the runes suddenly flooded back. And this time, they were fully charged with electricity.

"Everybody, we all have to say it to keep it at bay!" Levi bellowed.

"_Banōn! Banōn! Banōn!_" everyone shouted, and eventually, the runes disappeared completely.

"It's because we're near the Hufflepuff dormitories," Ali sighed.

"Teamwork, friendship, yeah yeah," Skoren said. "Look - there's a window!"

Everyone dog-paddled through the water to the window and sat on the ledge. Priscilla Dornan was snoring loudly. Rose giggled.

"Oh no!" Ali exclaimed. "The window has no runes to protect it!"

She was right - the window was cracking with it's protectors gone.

"Quick!" Ali hissed at Skoren. "NOW! DO SOMETHING!"

"_Berγan_," Skoren said hurriedly, and runes appeared out of nowhere, docilely swimming about in the water.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Ali demanded.

"Because I created them," Skoren snapped back.

"Okay guys, enough," Levi intervened. "Let's find our window, Skor."

They swam about, checking different ones, until Rose called, "I found it! _OH NO!_"

They all swam as frantically and quickly as they could. Rose was turned away from the window, her face redder than her hair.

"What is-" Skoren began, but stopped when he looked in the window.

Charlie Minneal and Fabian Nartrodder were kissing passionately in a corner of the room. Everybody swam away from the frame, their faces crimson.

"… I'll never be able to look at them again without-" Skoren began.

"WITHOUT WHAT?" Ali shrieked, suddenly furious. "WITHOUT THINKING THEY'RE POUFS? IS THAT WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY? WELL YOU KNOW WHAT, _MISTER_-"

"I WAS NOT GOING TO SAY THAT!" Skoren bellowed back.

"YEAH, RIGHT!" Ali screamed. "YOU NO-GOOD DISGRACE!"

Skoren froze. His eye twitched. "Don't. Call. Me. A. Disgrace."

Ali froze too. "Oh, Skor, I'm so sorry-"

"Forget it," he snarled. "Don't even try."

And he swam away, back to the surface, blasting runes out of the way.

Ali burst into tears and swum after him.

"Well, there's no use trying to find it without them," Levi said morosely to Blake and Rose. "It looks like we won't be finding out the secret just yet."

"Wait!" Rose called after the two boys. "Can I do something?"

"What?" Levi asked nervously.

"Well… this," she replied, and sent pink sparks out of her wand in the shape of a heart, then swam away.

"C'mon, mate," Blake urged. "If they look out the window and see us, they'll think we did it and we'd be the biggest pansies in the school."

Levi didn't reply, but swam away anyway, destroying the runes. He wasn't in the mood to talk.

No one noticed a dark shape slither away from the window frame.

"I think I got enough for the _Prophet_," The follower said aloud. They swam away.

Skoren and Ali were still having a shouting match at each other at eleven. Charlie and Fabian had long since gone to bed, still smiling faintly at each other.

"_Silencio. Silencio,_" Levi said in a monotone voice at both of them. Ali turned and started to mouth furiously at Levi, but no sound came out.

"I think you've both proved your point," he said sourly. "Go to bed."

Ali shot one last glare at Skoren, then one more at Levi, before storming up to her dormitory.

"_Finite_," he muttered, and Skoren could talk again.

"Let's go to bed," Levi said before he could say anything.

"Fine," he muttered.

"And I expect you to be civil with Ali, just so that we can discover what's under the window."

There was no reply.

**(Thanks to larrissa hazel malfoy for reviewing! **Please review**, as it is the only way to replenish my lifeblood… haha just kidding! Anyway, my sister asked me which Indestructible I relate to most, and I decided on Skoren, because I like plants and because of his slightly, er, for lack of a better word, pompous attitude. Also, I study linguistics, so his connection with proto-germanic runes is kind of something of me that I threw in there. It's crazy how much power they all have! But we'll find out **_**why**_** soon enough. And as for Skoren and Ali's fight - yes, I know it's Ron and Hermione, but this is going to be a lot more vicious. TRUST ME.)**

**~PPB**


	10. 10

**(Okay, just kidding, this story's going to have a lot more chapters than 9 or 10. Read and enjoy!)**

Ali's revenge happened at breakfast the next day. Levi hadn't known who to sit with, so he sat in the middle of them, attempting to ignore the poisonous stares that they two were shooting at each other behind his back.

Skoren got up to use the bathroom, and Ali looked down at her plate, muttering in distress. Or so it seemed…

When he got back and took a bite of blueberry waffle, he chewed contentedly, before gasping.

"What's wrong, Skor?" Levi asked.

"She… she…"

But Skoren could say no more, for he began to inflate. Soon his entire body was inflating, and it had turned a brilliant shade of purple.

"He's Violet Beauregarde!" Levi gasped in surprise. "Charles read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to me once."

But he had no time to reminisce, for Skoren's head was touching the enchanted ceiling. His body got so inflated he began knocking students and tables over.

"_Sonorus_," Levi said, pointing his wand to his throat, then saying, "Professor McGonagall, shouldn't we evacuate the room?"

"Yes!" she yelled back. Quickly the student body left, but the Indestructibles remained. The teachers surrounded the bulbous blueberry that was now Skoren Zabini.

"Try your best!" McGonagall shrieked, and fired a grey light at his ever expanding body.

Everyone in the room had mastered silent spellwork, and it was a sight to see, five first-years and a group of teachers effortlessly flicking their wands and firing spell after counterjinx after curse at his body. But Ali's spellwork was impeccable, and with each hit he only seemed to get bigger. Ali, especially, was firing spell after spell at him.

"It only makes him bigger, doesn't it?" Levi sighed at Ali.

She just smirked.

Levi attempted to step forward, but Skoren's body pushed him back. He could fight it, but…

Wait. Levi carefully squeezed the blue body and clothes, and only felt freshly-starched clothes.

"Oh, come on," he said, annoyed at Ali. "Only his clothes inflated, didn't they? _Reducto Maxima._"

A gigantic popping noise rang out, and suddenly there was only Skoren, bedraggled, unconscious, a hole in the front of his shirt - and everything, skin and all, completely blue.

"_Depulso_," Levi murmured to the giants shreds of cloth, which promptly flew out of the castle via the front door. The giant squid would probably try to eat them.

"Well, it's not too serious," Madam Pomfrey said, bending over him. She had been fetched as soon as Skoren had begun to expand. "It's going to take a couple of months before we can get the blue out of his bloodstream, but-"

"Spoorsilk," Skoren coughed weakly.

"What about them?" Professor Longbottom asked.

"Oh, I get it," Blake said suddenly. "_Accio Spoorsilk Cactus_."

It took a couple of minutes, but eventually, the tiny potted barrel cactus flew to Blake, who poked a bristle into Skoren's skin. McGonagall gasped, but Longbottom shushed her.

Suddenly a gaping hole appeared in the Spoorsilk, and it began drinking. The blue slowly drained from Skoren's body to be concentrated in his left arm, where the Spoorsilk drank slowly and slowly, growing taller and taller. Finally, he was almost completely blue-free.

"Thank you, Mr. Finnigan," McGonagall said graciously to Blake. "Fourty points to Gryffindor. And fifty points to Hufflepuff, Mr. Umbridge, for Reducting Skoren's inflated clothes."

"Thanks, Professor," Levi said. "Woah… Blake, we're tied. For House points."

"Yes," Professor McGonagall said. "It should boost Hufflepuff's spirits. They're doing dismally in the House Cup Tournament."

This earned her a glare from Professor Sinistra.

"CRAP!" Ali shouted, so loudly that Professor McGonagall stared disapprovingly at her.

"What, Ali?" Levi asked, feeling wrathful. Two weeks since Skoren and Ali's argument, and they hadn't talked to each other.

"Look at the front page," she snapped, thrusting it in front of him.

_**Student at Hogwarts Display Dangerous Qualities**_

Hogwarts just may have another nutcase on its hands, _writes Rita Skeeter, Editor-in-Chief of _The Daily Prophet_ and Top Reporter_. Sources from within the school tell this reporter that a first-year there, Levi Umbridge, displays an alarming connection with dementors.

"Yes, he's deeply into Dark magic," the source, who wishes to remain unknown, said. "He even _summoned_ a dementor to attack a defenseless third-year who hadn't done anything wrong. Have you ever heard of someone _summoning_ a dementor?"

This reporter hasn't, and questioned several authorities on the matter.

"This sort of Dark magic is highly unusual," says Sara Marchbanks, an Auror for the Ministry. "There are no written records of anybody summoning a dementor."

The source has offered further insight into this deranged boy, who's mother, Dolores Jane Umbridge, has 36 life sentences in Azkaban.

"He's been brought up in Azkaban, and has no friends," the source says. "He's weak-willed, and hates people. He'd as soon as curse somebody as look at them. And he has this weird twisted friendship with dementors. Like, he talks to them and stuff. He's threatened tons of people that he'd 'call his friends and they'd take them down'."

The source also provided a list of students who were threatened by Mr. Umbridge, who a source in St. Mungo's said should come in for an appointment as soon as possible.

"A deranged boy like that needs to be checked into our hospital, long-term," the Healer advises.

"The first person he threatened was Blake Finnigan," the source gave me. "Then others, like Ali Macmillan, Skoren Zabini, Rose Weasley, and most surprisingly - James and Albus Potter, sons of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice."

So for any of you who's son or daughter was on that unfortunate list, this reporter offers you the deepest condolences.

In an unrelated, but no less problematic subject, the source can attest to the shared kiss of two boys in Hufflepuff, Charlie Minneal, a Muggleborn, and Fabian of the eminent Nartrodders.

"It's disgusting, that's what it is," the source told me. "We can't have _those_ people cluttering up Great Britain."

This reporter agrees, and is sure that most of you out there do as well.

Hopefully the Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, can do something about these embarrassments and dangers before any more are harmed.

"IT WAS YOU WHO TOLD!" Skoren hissed, pointing at Ali. "HOW COULD YOU BETRAY CHARLIE AND FABIAN LIKE THAT?"

"NO, IT WAS YOU!" she snarled back. "OR YOU!" she growled, pointing at Levi.

"How could I?" he retorted. "Feeding lies about myself, am I?"

Levi looked over to the Gryffindor table and saw Blake and Rose staring malevolently at all three of them. Blake bared his teeth angrily.

Without even thinking, Levi stood up on the table and Transfigured Blake into a falcon.

Immediately an all-out war broke out between the five. Ali twirled her wand everywhere, sending hundreds of spells everywhere in a matter of minutes. Skoren Conjured hundreds of plants out of thin air, hurling them at the others. Rose and Blake were sending magic of all sorts everywhere, melting walls and frying tables.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" McGonagall shrieked, but Levi merely Transfigured her into a rock.

The other students were both watching raptly and walking away. Those foolish enough to attempt to draw their wand were quickly Disarmed and Transfigured. Fabian and Charlie had both run from the room long ago

Suddenly Levi stowed his wand away and began just pointing at his opponents, sending wandless hex after wandless jinx their way.

"_fūnHstiz_!" Skoren yelled, the Rune for fist. A giant hand barreled towards Ali, who only just managed to deflect it.

"_DEUZÁN_!" shrieked Skoren suddenly, who's eyes rolled back in his head. All five were hit with a blinding light, and Levi's mind went blank.

_It was strange._

_ Levi felt as if he were slithering through the grass, darting silently through it. He raised his head to an astonishing sight._

_ There was a snake hundreds of miles long, its head alone the size of two Azkabans. It looked straight down to Levi._

_ "Are you ready to become an Animagus?" its voice boomed, both in his ears and in his mind._

_ "I - I don't know," he said, suddenly feeling very small. "What will I become?"_

_ "A snake, for that is your innate animal," the snake boomed again. "How well you would have done in Slytherin. That buffoon called the Sorting Hat told me of it."_

_ Levi gasped. "Who are you?"_

_ "I am the _last_ remnant of Salazar Slytherin!" the snake hissed, lifting its head proudly. "The finest of snake Animagi. Once he died, only I remained in the Animagus Realm, to teach those who are, truly, on the inside, snakes." Here he paused. "Unfortunately, instead of a Slytherin I see before me, I see a worthless Hufflepuff."_

_ "Hufflepuffs aren't worthless!" Levi retorted hotly, forgetting who he was speaking to._

_ "Yes, the loyalty is without question…" Slytherin mused. "But enough about Houses. You are here for one thing, and for one thing only - to be a snake. All I must say is that I am thankful that you are not a Mudblood, or a filthy half-blood. Alas, you are not pureblood either."_

_ "Then… what am I?" he asked, suddenly feeling very small._

_ "I do not know," the snake said, musing again. "But now, will you accept your true Animagus, or will it haunt you forever?" He then quoted, _

"Make your choice, adventurous Stranger

Strike the bell and bide the danger

Or wonder, till it drives you mad

What would have followed if you had._"_

_ Levi set his jaw. "I will do it."_

_ "Then let us begin," Slytherin said, and, rearing up, zoomed towards Levi, his fangs bared. _

_ Levi tried to move, but he was held in place. The snake's giant head loomed imperiously above him._

_ He cried out with pain as a sharp pain engulfed his mouth._

_ "The snake's forked tongue is a symbol of lies, but it can be used to your advantage. Some have lived their entire lives for others, by trading word for word from mouth to mouth," a voice whispered._

_ Another sharp pain blossomed on his feet._

_ "The snake is cursed to wander the earth on his stomach, but only the lowliest hear the things that others want to be kept secret. Only the snakes know the forbidden knowledge of both the evilest and the purest."_

_ And suddenly one hundred needles were driven into his skin, unbearably hot._

_ "The snake's skin is covered with scales, but these scales protect it from wounds."_

_ And the most potent pain of all, pulsing and writhing behind his eyelids._

_ "The snake's eyes are constantly seeing," the voice continued. "It sees things. _Dark_ things. Things you will not want to confront. Those things will change you - for the better, for the worse."_

_ A mind-numbing pain reduced Levi to shrieks, howls, and screams._

_ "Will you, Leviathan Umbridge, take the gift of the Animagi and treasure it?" the voice hissed softly. _

_ "Yes," he managed between screams._

_ Suddenly all the pain flooded from his body._

_ "The snake, quiet, unassuming, the puppetmaster of it all. The perpetrator, but also the victim. The impartial, the uncaring, but the wise, and overall, the ambitious. The snake - final judge of _all _actions_._"_

_ The vision slowly faded from Levi's mind, and the pain he was in resided. He fell into a dreamless, empty sleep._

_ Ali awoke in a place she only recognized from the Muggle movies her father had shown her - the African savannah. She climbed up onto a rock and flung her arms outwards, relishing the feeling of the wind on her face and the sun in her hair._

_ "I often did that, once," a voice rumbled behind her, and she jumped._

_ Behind Ali was a lion. A lion the size of Hogwarts! But no matter how big he was, the sunlight still flooded in. In an instant Ali knew who he was._

_ "You're Godric Gryffindor," she stated._

_ "Right you are," the lion chuckled, "At least, in another life. But now I am the last living remnant of Godric Gryffindor here."_

_ "Where _is_ here?" Ali asked in interest. "It looks like the African savannah."_

_ "Does it now?" The lion asked, and it let out a hearty roar. "Well, to each their own, Miss Macmillan."_

_ "You know my name?" she asked, startled._

_ "And much more," he said. "Alexandra Macmillan, you are here to become your true form. Your Animagus."_

_ "_WHAT?_" Ali shrieked. "You're going to teach me how to be a lion?"_

_ "Yes," Gryffindor said. "You were almost put in my house, you know."_

_ "But…"_

_ "You asked to be with your friends forever, so that you could always be close. And the Sorting Hat listened. However, I have heard that you have not always been as faithful to your friends as I would have liked." Here, he gave her a stern glance._

_ "But-"_

_ "You jump to conclusions, Miss Macmillan, and that is what effects the people around you. It is always important to hear the other side of things - that is another value of Hufflepuff House, I believe."_

_ "You're right," she said, bowing her head. "I need to apologize to Skoren." She gasped. "Wait, how will I get back?"_

_ "The only way is to become an Animagus," the lion sighed, "Or go on."_

_ Ali stared straight back into the eyes of Godric Gryffindor, the first person to have ever done so and not back down. "I will learn how to be a lion," she said firmly, "if only to get back to my friends."_

_ "It will be painful," Gryffindor warned._

_ "I don't care!" Ali said recklessly, not breaking the gaze. "I will learn."_

_ "Very well," Godric sighed. "As you wish."_

_ Suddenly, Ali could not move. The mountain of a lion roared in her face, baring his teeth at her, the incredible savannah wind whipping his mane around like a tornado._

_ Her feet were suddenly in excruciating pain, and an impish voice in her ear, not unlike a mosquito, whispered, "The lion is sure-footed. They step with grace, with dignity, and they prove their rule with every step."_

_ There was a pain in her teeth, crunching them, _breaking _them, but she could do nothing._

_ "The lion must kill to feed, but never does so purely for enjoyment. The lion deals justice when it is deserved and _only_ when it is deserved."_

_ Suddenly her hands were decimated by heat and pain. She screamed and moaned._

_ "The lion rules with a fair hand. They guide their young and others' young, and their footfalls will set an example for hundreds of generation to come."_

_ And suddenly her entire body was on fire._

_ "Above all, the lion protects those they care about. They guard their young and their loved ones with their lives, and not even death will prevent them from protecting those they care for."_

_ The pain was too much. Ali pleaded for it to stop, but it wouldn't go away._

_ "Will you, Alexandra Macmillan, take the gift of the Animagi and treasure it?" the voice questioned._

_ "YES!" she yelled. "PLEASE! STOP!"_

_ The pain disappeared, and Ali was reduced to shuddering, wracking sobs._

_ "The lion, proud, kind, and guiding. The balance. The savior and the destroyer, the greatest and yet, the weakest. The lion - protector of the world."_

_The vision faded from her mind, but before she fell into a peaceful, black sleep, she saw a great lion walk off into the African sunset. _

_ Godric Gryffindor had gone on._

_ Skoren awoke in a world that was completely black. He managed to stand up, but there were no walls, no nothing. He could only see himself. _

_ Suddenly a figure walked out of the black. He drew his wand reflexively, ready to conjure plants to destroy the person if need be. Already Skoren was planning out how he would lay out the Snargaluff pods when the figure called, "Oi, you git, put that away!"_

_ The figure got close, and Skoren could see that it was a young woman. She had golden brown hair and dark eyebrows, and a heart-shaped face._

_ "Who are you?" he asked suspiciously._

_ "Tonks," she replied. "Nice ta'meetcha. Skoren, right?"_

_ "Yeah… but, you're dead," he stammered._

_ "Eh," she shrugged indifferently. "I couldn't go on. I had to stay here and teach someone. Evidently, you."_

_ "Oh," Skoren said. "What're you going to teach me, Tonks?"_

_ "I am a Metamorphmagus," she replied, drawing herself up proudly._

_ "A what?" Skoren asked._

_ "Metamorphmagus," Tonks said, visibly annoyed. She had hoped it would make more of an impact on him. "Just… just watch."_

_ She concentrated, and suddenly her hair was growing longer and longer. It turned a delicate shade of light blue. Tonks concentrated some more, and her face changed shape, becoming boxy and more boyish. Soon her ears were pointed like a house-elf's._

_ "_Wicked_," Skoren said, and Tonks grinned mischievously._

_ "That's what I like to hear," she laughed, and high-fived him._

_ "So… how do I become a Metamorphmagus?" Skoren asked._

_ "Well, I was always taught that Metamorphmagi were _born_, not _made_," Tonks said. "So the voice that brought me here told me to go with my instincts." She rolled her eyes. "Fat lot of help he was."_

_ Skoren laughed. He liked Tonks._

_ "So how _do_ you Morph?" Skoren asked._

_ "Well…" Tonks paused, and she blushed a bit. "It's kind of like a Patronus Charm." She looked at him. "Oh, who am I kidding, he's a first-year-"_

_ "_Expecto Patronum_," Skoren said clearly, concentrating on when he had made his first friends on the Hogwarts Express. His Patronus, a walrus, flopped on the ground. Despite herself, Tonks burst out laughing._

_ "Go ahead. Laugh. My Patronus is a walrus," Skoren said, but he smiled himself._

_ "It's… it's too much!" she gasped. "Okay… hold on…" she concentrated, and burst out laughing. Her skin started flashing different colors._

_ "So yeah," she began. "Just think of a though that makes you laugh. Something funny. Like a walrus flopping on top of a bunch of dementors."_

_ Skoren laughed. "Levi wouldn't like that much."_

_ "Ooh, gossip," Tonks said excitedly. "We have all day. Do tell."_

_ Skoren hesitated for only a moment, before telling her everything. Starting with his would-be mom's death, his parent's cruelty, and his life 'upholding the precious balance the Zabinis are constantly attempting to maintain'. Then he went to the Hogwarts Express, and who all his friends were. To the Sorting, when Tonks exclaimed, "HUFFLEPUFF! That's my House too! Congratulations!"_

_ He explained all that had happened, including the numerous encounters with James, and the thing under the window._

_ "Gosh, if only I could talk to Harry…" Tonks said. "I'd give him a few words of advice to pass on to that son of his…"_

_ She trailed off, looking pained, so Skoren continued, telling her about Ali's proficiency with Mermish, and how they had discovered what incredible abilities they all had._

_ "I'm probably the least special, though," he said glumly. "All I can do is talk to plants."_

_ "Least special my Granny Druella's bottom," Tonks snorted. "You're a _Metamorphmagus_! And a pretty cool kid."_

_ "Thanks," Skoren said, grinning._

_ He continued telling her of their first expedition into the lake and the embarrassment of seeing Charlie Minneal and Fabian Nartrodder. Then, hesitantly, he told her of their argument, and the _Prophet _article._

_ "Gee, only your first-year and everything happens to you," Tonks said sympathetically. "You guys remind me of Harry Potter. Always getting into trouble, into things that were seven times too big for you… and having your share of fights."_

_ "Really?" Skoren sputtered._

_ "Yup," Tonks said, then gasped. "Skoren, you're changing!"_

_ The Metamorphmagus was right. Skoren's hair was slowly growing to his shoulders. He closed his eyes and thought of Levi Transfiguring McGonagall into a baboon. His hair turned bubblegum pink._

_ "Nice!" she roared. "Congrats!"_

_ "Thanks," he said, and willed his skin to turn green. He then lowered his chin so much he looked like a horse._

_ "So, Skoren," Tonks said in a business-like tone, "Before I leave, I want you to tell me the funniest thing that has happened this year."_

_ "Well…" he said, thinking. "We decided to play a prank on the teachers. We charmed their seats to Transfigure them into mice. McGonagall's didn't work, but she became so overcome with the scent of mouse that she turned into a cat and started chasing them. She actually _swallowed_ Professor Longbottom whole, and we had to fish him out."_

_ Tonks laughed heartily. "Old McGonagall!" she said. "Thanks for sharing, Skor."_

_ "Wait," he said suddenly, remembering what she had said a moment earlier. "You have to leave?"_

_ "Yeah," she replied, and smiled, but it was a sad smile. "Skoren, I'm dead. I'm just here to teach you how to be a Metamorphmagus, which you've done."_

_ "Where are you going?" He asked worriedly._

_ "On," she said simply. "But before I go, take this."_

_ She had pulled a mirror out of nowhere. It was only the size of the locket Skoren had received for his tenth birthday._

_ "I have an identical one," she said, indicating the one hanging around her neck. "I can look out of it and see all those marvelous pranks through _your_ mirror. So wear the two-way mirror in your locket - I want to see Hogwarts again. We can even talk through them."_

_ "Thanks," Skoren said, slightly emotional, and pulled her into a hug._

_ "Oh - can you do me one last favor?" she asked, sounding desperate._

_ "What?" _

_ "Well, when you wake up, find a boy named Teddy Lupin. He's a . And show him the mirror, and let me… let me talk with him." she blinked back tears. "Okay?"_

_ "Sure," Skoren replied. "Anything. But Tonks - what _is _on? What's after death?"_

_ "All I know," she said, smiling, "Is that there is a wonderful man named Remus Lupin, waiting for me there. See ya, Skoren."_

_ And she got up from the black and walked off, disappearing from view._

_ Just before he fell asleep, Skoren called, "Thanks, Tonks."_

_ "Please," her voice said. "Call me Nymphadora."_

**(There you have it, folks! The longest chapter yet! Thanks for reading, and please review! Also, Teddy - yeah, he'd be in his "ninth" year at Hogwarts, but there's a reason that I'll explain next chapter.)**

**~PPB**


	11. 11

**(Thanks to MarisCan'tRememberHerPassword for reviewing!)**

Levi awoke to a terrible pounding in his head. The entire world was black, until he focused his eyes. Hovering above him was Madam Pomfrey.

"He's awake!" he heard her announce. There were several gasps at her words.

He reluctantly let his eyes slide into focus, wanting instead to go back to sleep. Gathered around him were Professor McGonagall, Professor Sinistra, Ali, Rose, Blake and… Hannah Longbottom.

"Oh, Levi," Hannah said emotionally, and she burst into tears.

"What… what happened?" Levi asked groggily.

"Well, Mr. Umbridge," McGonagall began testily, "You and your friends decided to have a little war in the Great Hall during breakfast because of a news article. Mr. Zabini here-" she gestured to Skoren, who was still unconscious in a hospital bed next to Levi "-Used Runic magic to enhance his magical power. Sometime during the battle, I was Transfigured into a rock."

"Sorry, ma'am," Levi whispered guiltily.

"Anyway, Skoren used an archaic Rune, one that not even Professor Whimzet, our Ancient Runes teacher, understood. It put all three of you - for you three were fighting from the same table - into a deep sleep. Luckily enough, Miss Weasley and Mr. Finnigan avoided the Runic power, but you three were in the exact center."

"How long have I been conked out?" Levi asked.

"Four weeks yesterday," Madam Pomfrey replied promptly.

"Blimey," Levi whispered.

"Ali awoke after the second week, and as you can see, Mr. Zabini has not awoken."

"I was-" Levi began, then decided not to tell about Salazar Slytherin. He caught Ali's eye - she nodded almost imperceptibly. They would talk later.

"TONKS!" Skoren suddenly roared. Everyone in the hospital wing jumped out of their skin.

"NYMPHADORA TONKS!" Skoren yelled again. McGonagall was deathly pale.

"Aurora," she said to Professor Sinistra, "Go to the Gryffindor common room and get Ted Lupin, a seventh-year. Bring him here _immediately_. Miss Longbottom, take as many shortcuts as you can - you know them well enough - and get to Hogsmeade. Disapparate to _number seven Charlock Place_." As she spoke the address, the entire air seemed to shimmer. McGonagall handed her a picture. "That is the location. When you arrive, get Andromeda Tonks and get back here as soon as possible. Understood?"

Neither seemed remotely fazed by their instructions, and headed off to fulfill them immediately.

"Why'd you get… Ted Lupin and Andromeda Tonks?" Blake asked.

"Nymphadora Tonks was the daughter of Andromeda and the mother of Teddy," McGonagall replied, and Levi thought he could detect tears in her eyes. "Nymphadora died during the Second Wizarding War at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange."

Sinistra and Hannah arrived at the same time, followed by two people who looked utterly confused.

"Thank you, Aurora, Hannah," McGonagall said graciously.

"Professor McGonagall? Why is Grandmum here?" the boy asked.

"Mr. Lupin, this boy here is under a powerful Runic spell. He just screamed out your mother's name."

Ted's face drained of color and he ran to Skoren's side. Levi, feeling better, got out of bed. Madam Pomfrey looked unhappy about this, but didn't say anything.

They all crowded around Skoren's bed, waiting for him to say anything else. Ted's face was still white, and his black hair was slowly draining of color.

_His hair_?

Levi took a second look and saw that it was turning white.

"He's a Metamorphmagus," Rose explained, pulling Levi aside. "He can change his hair color, nose shape, _anything _at will."

Suddenly Skoren sat up and opened his eyes. "Hi guys," he said sleepily. "What've I missed?"

"You just said my mother's name," Ted said quietly.

"What?" Skoren said.

"Tonks," Ted said, blinking back tears. "Nymphadora Tonks."

"Are you… are you _Teddy_?" Skoren asked incredulously.

"Yeah," the seventh-year replied.

"I - I just met your mum!" Skoren laughed.

"_What?_" Professor McGonagall shrieked. "But Nymphadora's…"

"She stayed behind to teach someone how to be a Metamorphmagus," Skoren explained.

"But Metamorphmagi are born, not made…" Ted began, but he trailed off as Skoren turned his hair bubblegum pink and made it grow several feet.

"Or how about this?" Skoren said, enjoying the attention. His skin turned pale and wrinkled hideously. He lost all his hair, his eyes became very big, and he shrunk to about three feet . To top it all off, his ears were gigantic.

"A _house-elf_?" Ali exclaimed. "Wow!"

"This is… this is incredible," Professor McGonagall said faintly.

Skoren turned to Ted again, and Levi could see excitement in his eyes.

"Teddy - hold on," Skoren said, getting out his locket. He had shown it to Levi and Ali once, telling them that it was a present from his house-elf, Dribsy. He opened it and removed a mirror three times it's size.

"Tonks?" Skoren said to the mirror. "Heya, Tonks."

No one replied. Blake shifted uncomfortably.

"Nymphadora!" Skoren said loudly.

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" A new voice said indignantly.

A face appeared in the mirror. The person Skoren was talking to had golden brown hair, a lopsided smile, and a very heart-shaped face.

McGonagall fainted.

"Wotcher, Tonks," Skoren said happily.

"Bothering me already?" she said in a mock-annoyed voice.

"No," Skoren said, suddenly quite subdued. "I want you to meet someone."

He turned the mirror to Ted, who was completely pale.

"Hi, Teddy," Tonks stuttered nervously, pressing her hand against the glass.

Teddy burst into tears.

"Alright, everyone get out!" said Madam Pomfrey. "You three seem to be in fine spirits," she muttered, glancing at Levi, Skoren, and Ali. "I only want Mr. Lupin and, er, Professor McGonagall to stay here. Out! Out!"

Skoren smiled warmly at Ted and the mirror before walking out of the hospital wing with Levi.

"Skoren, I'm sorry," Ali said as soon as they had left.

"Me, too," he responded immediately. Levi, Blake, and Rose looked at them in surprise.

"Well, thank the dementors you two are made up. Now, I have something to tell you-"

"Thank the dementors?" someone snorted.

"James, shut up!" Rose said behind her.

"No, I have a better idea," Levi said malevolently. "Watch and learn."

He turned around and faced James Potter, who was sneering unpleasantly at them.

Levi's body fell to the floor and became a snake.

"YAAAAAAH!" screamed James, jumping a foot into the air. "SNAAAAAAKE!"

The snake hissed and spit at the second-year, reared up, and jumped at him.

A couple minutes later, the five were doubled up laughing in the corridor.

"James runs like a little girl!" Rose gasped, attempting to breathe.

"And the best part is, I got it all on camera!" Ali said triumphantly.

"You did _not_," Rose said, her face lighting up.

"Watch." she placed her wand on her temple and pulled a silvery thread out of her head. "_Memoria imaginis_," Ali said. The silvery thread solidified into the picture of James seeing the snake, freaking out, and running away bawling.

"Now, I'll experiment with making solid copies of this, and soon everyone in the school will know what a crybaby Mr. James Potter is," Ali said maliciously.

"Wicked," Blake said.

It had been three weeks since Skoren and Levi had awoken, and the Indestructibles had come to the conclusion that they wouldn't tell anyone about Levi and Ali's Animagus powers. No one except those who were in the infirmary knew about Skoren being a Metamorphmagus, and they planned to keep it like that.

Of course, that didn't mean they couldn't abuse it.

James Potter suddenly found himself accosted by an assortment of boys and girls - Skoren had found that he could switch gender if he tried hard enough - all who seemed to hate him. Once an eight-foot-tall man had followed him to Herbology, and a first-year girl with fluorescent purple hair had chased him to Transfiguration.

"You are a genius!" Tonks said, laughing, after each prank.

Teddy had reluctantly given Skoren back the mirror, after making him promise to let him have conversations with his mum once a week. Tonks now accompanied the Indestructibles on all their pranks, and helped them scheme up new ones, like when they managed to transform one the Great Hall into a real-life Candyland, or when they bewitched everyone's schoolbooks to sing Christmas carols off-key.

They met up in a deserted Ghoul Studies classroom - no one had taken it this year - one February night to discuss the lake.

"We're going down again," Levi said forcefully, "And we won't have any more _arguments_."

Skoren and Ali ignored the last part.

"When?" Blake asked.

"_Bulla_," Levi said, surrounding his body and Tonks' face with the bubble. "Tonight."

They were on the window ledge again. Charlie and Fabian had both withdrawn from school, leaving Skoren and Levi in the dormitory by themselves. Everyone was furious at Rita Skeeter, for Fabian had been popular and was in line to become a brilliant Keeper on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, once he was in his second year.

"Look down," Ali urged.

They glanced down, and saw what they had failed to notice before - a deep trench.

"Woah," Skoren said.

"Let's go," Rose said firmly, diving off the ledge. The others followed, quietly pushing through the runes.

They floated over the trench, level with the lakebed.

"Are you ready?" Skoren asked.

"Yes," Levi said, breathing deeply. He concentrated on the most hateful thought in his memory - the thought that hundreds of people hated him for living. "_Expecto dementor_," he hissed.

A dark shape swirled into existence next to them. Rose yelped and swam away. Everyone else floated backwards.

The dementor suddenly froze. Literally. And then Levi remembered diving with the dementors in the North Sea for Lobalugs, and how -

How they froze the water.

"_Brenwanan_!" Skoren shouted as soon as he realized that the water was freezing. The Rune for 'burn' blazed through the ice, but it was quickly closed up by more of it.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM_!" Ali yelled, and a pelican flew from her wand and chased the dementor out of the water. It immediately stopped freezing, and they made quick work of the remainder of the ice.

"Looks like we'll have to get it ourselves," Skoren said, taking a deep, shuddering breath.

"Yup," Blake said.

They stopped resisting the waters tug and let themselves drift down into the gorge.

"_Lumos_," Rose whispered, lighting up the trench. The Indestructibles followed her example, sinking slowly through the trench.

"I don't like this place," Ali said, gritting her teeth.

"Me neither," Levi whispered.

Blake inhaled sharply. "I've touched the floor."

"_Lumos Maxima_," Ali said, lighting up the ground. "Everyone land next to Blake!" she suddenly yelled frantically.

Everyone swam to the ledge that Blake had landed on. It was a few feet above the actual bottom, which was constantly shifting, like some underwater wind was pushing it. In the center was a book.

"That's it!" Ali hissed. "That's what we've been looking for."

"Well, let's test out the Suction Charm," Tonks said from the mirror. "During Auror training, I was always told to send a decoy into a trap to detect its danger."

"Good idea," Ali said. "_Accio fish_."

A small orange fish flew to her hand, and she directed it to the book.

In the blink of an eye it disappeared.

"That was quick," Skoren said nervously. "This could be dangero-"

But he was cut off by a dark shape passing over them all. They looked up to see a giant shape blocking their escape from the abyss.

"IT'S THE GIANT SQUID!" shrieked Rose.

"Wait… the fish didn't get Suctioned…" Ali muttered, looking at the book.

"ALI, IT'S GOING TO DIVE AT US!" Rose screamed.

"Everyone, I know it's against your instincts, but if you want to stay alive, touch the book," Ali said.

"BUT IT HAS A SUCTION CHARM-" Skoren bellowed.

"-NO IT DOESN'T!" Ali yelled back. "NOW IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU, TOUCH. THE. BOOK!"

"ALI, IT'S DIVING!" Rose howled.

"_Locomotus!_" Ali shouted, and suddenly Levi and everyone else were controlled by Ali's wand. She propelled them forward, until they all hovered above the book.

The squid was diving at them, it's two giant eyes staring unblinkingly at her.

She pressed everyone's hand on the book at the same time.

Ali had thought correctly. The Portkey transferred them away from the squid at the last moment.

Unfortunately, a tentacle had latched on to Skoren's feet.

**(This chapter isn't as good as I wanted it to be, but what can you do? The climax is next chapter, which means I'll end on lucky number thirteen! Please review!)**

**~PPB**


	12. 12

Levi landed on top of stone, cold, wet, and black.

He shook his head and stood up unsteadily. The Portkey had been the most unpleasant way to travel, in his opinion, even worse than Side-Along Apparition.

He looked around. He was standing on one-third of a large triangular prism stood on its end. He looked down into the center, where hundreds of cells lined the inner walls, and a dank courtyard at the base and a giant pink blob laying in its center.

_Levi was on Azkaban_.

"Levi, where are we?" Skoren asked nervously.

"On Azkaban," Levi said, shivering.

The rest of the Indestructibles got up, shivering from the cold in the air. Levi wondered why he had never felt it before - it was so very cold and uncaring on Azkaban.

"The giant squid!" Ali exclaimed, pointing into the courtyard below. The pink blob was swimming up towards them, like the air was water. The prisoners, in their wall-to-wall chains, stared dully at the squid.

"Ali, _why_ did you pull us into that Portkey?" Rose demanded.

"The giant squid was going to attack us!" Ali protested. "I figured it out because Suction Charms are supposed to be very loud and noticeable. But the giant squid managed to catch a ride along."

"Indeed I did," boomed a voice.

They turned around to face the giant eye of the squid, which was staring knowingly at them.

"_You can talk_?" Rose shrieked.

"As much as you, Miss Weasley," the squid said.

"But… how?" Blake sputtered.

"Perhaps we would be better off conversing in my real form," the squid mused. It rolled it's eyes inwards. "Body, I do believe I am at the 'eleventh hour'."

Suddenly the giant squid began to shrink, until it could flop on top of Azkaban. It shrunk to about five feet long, when it began taking on a more human appearance. Finally the man stood up.

"Perhaps you may have heard of me," he rumbled, his voice rich and deep. "My name is Godric Gryffindor."

"Godric Gryffindor?" Skoren gasped. "But Ali said… you went on."

"I'm afraid I double-crossed the world," Gryffindor said cheekily. "I let my old friend Salazar trap half of me inside the body of the squid, so I could watch over Hogwarts. I let my Animagus side go to Limbo, where it waited for Ali."

Ali nodded and, shaking, transformed into a lion.

"Very pretty," a sweet voice that was all too familiar said.

"_Mother_?" Levi gasped in horror, turning around.

There she was - Dolores Umbridge. She had spruced up for the occasion, wearing pink clothing, freshly-curled hair, and her sickening sweet toady smile. Levi noted that she once again held her hand in her ring-covered fingers.

"How'd you get your wand back from Charles?" he asked hoarsely.

"I did the filthy Squib a favor and killed him," she said dismissively. "I am once more the warden of Azkaban, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"I have heard your name before, Umbridge," Gryffindor said. "I watched your tyrannical reign at Hogwarts. Leave here at once."

"DOLORES!" someone else shrieked.

Levi turned just in time to see Professor McGonagall Apparate on top of Azkaban.

"Minerva," his mother said, her voice positively dripping with honey now. "How nice of the _Headmistress _of Hogwarts to grace us with her presence."

"_Silencio!_" McGonagall said vehemently, but Levi's mother carelessly waved her wand in front of her. The Shield Charm was so strong that it shattered the Silencing Charm completely.

"Minerva, I'm busy with Godric Gryffindor, can't you see?" Levi's mum said viciously. McGonagall could only gape at the sight of the founder of her House.

Ali transformed back into a human, and looked at Levi. He knew what she meant to do.

"_Incarcerous Maxima! Stupefy!_" she yelled.

Umbridge clearly hadn't been expecting this. She was tied up with ropes and then Stunned quite quickly.

"Seventy points to Hufflepuff, Miss Macmillan," McGonagall said ruthlessly, "for shutting up Dolores."

"Gryffindor," Levi said, "What's going on?" As he said this, he willed the dementors to ignore the roof of Azkaban. The fluttering black robes nodded and flew to the courtyard instead.

"The book," he said. "I penned that by willing myself to transform for a short while after you three came to Hogwarts. However, your mother, somehow, found out, and made it a Portkey here. She bided her time until Charles was too old to resist, then overpowered him."

"What's in the book? Why did the mermaid have to die?" Ali urged him.

"The mermaid didn't die," Gryffindor continued. "When she first sung to you in the girl's dormitory window, Dolores saw and hexed her voice. The second time, I tethered her to me, for there _was _a Suction Charm on the ground below, and it would have pulled her down and killed her if I hadn't had her tied to me. The third time she slipped out of my tether - that's why she was so terrified. If I hadn't grabbed her, she would've died."

"Gryffindor, _what is in the book_?" Levi shouted.

"A statement," he said simply. "It tells you who you three _really _are."

"What do you mean?" Skoren asked, but Ali inhaled sharply.

"No," she whispered, sinking to her knees. "No."

"WHAT?" Levi yelled.

"Ali's mother was actually implanted with mermaid eggs. She died before Ali came out of her. Ali is half-mermaid. That's why she can speak Mermish.

"Skoren's father hated his mother because she was bound to a human form. Desperate to marry into the wealthy Zabini family, the LeNuigs Transfigured their household protector - a manticore - into a woman after their only daughter died. Skoren is half-Manticore. That's why all plants listen to him - the Manticore's deadly poison scares them into submission.

"And Levi… Umbridge, desperate to have a son, used wandless magic to bind a dementor to a human form. Levi is half-dementor."

The three stared at Gryffindor in shock. McGonagall sat down on the stone, thunderstruck. Blake and Rose backed away.

"No…" Levi murmured, staring at the dementors in the courtyard. "You mean… one of them… is my _dad_?"

"Yes," Umbridge said quietly.

She had broken free of Ali's enchantments.

"The dementor that fathered you is long gone. I forced him into the North Sea and froze him. He is still a hunk of ice, at the depths of this cold, black hell of an ocean."

She smiled rather insanely.

"I Summoned Alastor Moody's eye from a British forest. I splintered it and spread it around strategic locations in Hogwarts. Like it or not, I was there every step of the way.

I Transfigured my face and managed to make James Potter fully believe you evil. I fed information to Albus Potter and persuaded him to tell Rita Skeeter. And I Imperiused Fabian Nartrodder and that filthy Muggle-born to kissing. I hadn't ruined a life in a while, and the Nartrodders were _so _meddlesome."

"Why?" Levi asked beseechingly. He didn't want it to be true - the mother that had raised him would not commit such heinous acts.

"Because you," she said levelly, staring straight at him, "are a half-breed. _AVADA KED-"_

Her Killing Curse was broken off by McGonagall screaming, "_CRUCIO!_"

Levi had known all about the Unforgivables needing to actually be meant to hurt. As his mother screamed and writhed on the ground, he turned and looked at Professor McGonagall. She had a wild fire in her eyes, a blazing anger that even he had never seen before.

"YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH ANOTHER OF MY STUDENTS AGAIN!" McGonagall screamed.

Umbridge picked herself up unsteadily, pointed her wand, and fired a Killing Curse silently at McGonagall. She ducked and sent another hex at her.

The Indestructibles took no time. Scrambling to their feet, they stood around McGonagall. All, that is, but one.

Levi stood, looking at the two different sides of battle. His friends, who had made his time at Hogwarts the best of his life. His mother, who had raised him on Bane Isle.

And who had tried to kill him.

Without another thought, Levi walked to McGonagall's side.

Godric Gryffindor watched the battle go on for a while. He knew that, with him here, his magical power was so much that nothing was fatal.

Evidently, one Indestructible realized that too. Ali Macmillan broke off from shooting spells at Umbridge and raced to him.

"There can only be one outcome to this battle, Mr. Gryffindor," she said. "_Portus_."

This last word was directed at a pebble Gryffindor was standing on. The Portkey whisked him away in a moment.

"_CRUCIO!_"

"_AVADA KEDAVRA_!"

"_INCARCEROUS!_"

"_VESPERTILIONEM!_"

The curses were fired one after the other, until Dolores Umbridge triumphantly shrieked, _"DEPULSO!"_

McGonagall had been looking at Rose, who had been hit with a Blood-Boiling Curse and was writhing on the ground in pain. The Banishing Charm hit her square in the chest and sent her flying.

For one heartstopping moment she hung in the air, before falling towards the stormy North Sea.

Levi stared frantically at the falling body of Professor McGonagall, and the cackling, delirious form of his mother.

He had never had trouble with Transfiguration, except for one spell.

"I'm sorry, mother," he whispered, and with all his heart, said, "_Transfero_."

The Switching Spell, for the first time in his life, worked, and the body of Professor McGonagall was replaced by the body of Dolores Umbridge.

"_WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA_!" He bellowed at his mother's now shrieking form, but the spell seemingly reflected off of her.

She fell with a barely audible splash into the North Sea. There was one more flash of pink, until Dolores Umbridge disappeared from view forever.

"Levi… you… saved me," McGonagall said, trembling. A dull, grey rain fell out of the fog of the early morning.

"You were the one who brought me to Hogwarts," he said simply.

Minerva McGonagall stared at this boy, who she had hated so much just for his parentage, the boy who had killed his mother to save her.

She pulled him into a hug.

"_Portus_," Ali said quietly to a different pebble. "Everyone, grab hold."

They all crowded around the pebble, and Levi felt the familiar hook behind his navel drag him away from Azkaban for what he knew would be the last time.

A few minutes later, a solitary dementor drifted to where the pebble used to be. It reached a clawed hand into the air, then dropped it.

With almost a sigh, Levi's father floated away.

**(There you have it. Umbridge dead. The three main characters half-breeds. Godric Gryffindor, the giant squid. There is only one more chapter left, and it will be shorter than normal.)**


	13. 13

It was the end of term feast. All the Indestructibles had passed the exams with flying colors. Charlie Minneal and Fabian Nartrodder had returned to school, while Rita Skeeter was put in Trachador, a wizarding prison for less serious crimes.

Professor McGonagall stood up at the teacher's table, and everyone fell silent.

"This year was a year of trials. We started off accepting someone who we didn't feel was welcome." Everyone looked at Levi for a moment before she continued. "Then a string of mysteries. Exceptional talents and unheard-of power - all of which culminated in a dangerous battle atop Azkaban."

There were mutterings everywhere. People had heard stories, but only the Hufflepuffs and the Indestructibles knew the truth.

"Five students were there with me, and fought as bravely as any top Auror at the Ministry. Rose Weasley. Blake Finnigan. Alexandra Macmillan. Skoren Zabini. And Leviathan Umbridge."

More mutterings, and more glances. Rose and Blake had been allowed to sit with Ali, Skoren, and Levi, and so were also receiving stares.

"Levi Umbridge, upon seeing me pushed off the edge of Azkaban, Switched me with his mother, just to save my life." McGonagall's jaw quivered. "And seeing as his family is dead, I would like to offer to adopt him."

Everyone gasped, but Levi simply smiled. He had guessed correctly.

"Sure, Mum," he said cheekily, and Tonks, hung around Teddy's shoulders right now, burst into laughter. Soon, the entire Hall was laughing, as the stress of the year seemed to wash away.

"I have one other matter to discuss before we speak of the House Cup. There was one other at Azkaban, one person everyone in this room knows of. He was Godric Gryffindor."

More gasps.

"He has since gone back into hiding, and wishes to remain secret. However, he is still alive, and will probably be so for the next hundred years or so."

People clapped for Godric Gryffindor, knowing he couldn't hear them. However, outside, the giant squid was doing backflips.

"And now, the House Cup. In fourth place, with one hundred and eighty-three points, Slytherin."

There was scattered applause.

"She docked points from Albus for telling Rita Skeeter," Ali explained.

"In third place, with three hundred and eighty-nine points, Ravenclaw."

"And the winner is…"

No one dared to breathe.

"With an astounding six hundred and ninety-four points, Hufflepuff!"

There was an explosion of cheering. At last, the Hufflepuffs could enjoy the glory of winning.

"Mum took me and Ali to get registered as Animagi yesterday," Levi told the Indestructibles.

They were once again on the Hogwarts Express, sitting in their favorite compartment, which Rose had marked with a Permanent Sticking Stamp. Having bought a hearty load of candy from the trolley, they were discussing the end of the year.

"So you're not illegal! Nice," Skoren said, grinning. "Well, I'm a registered Metamorphmagus, and apparently the strongest in seventeen centuries!" He proved the point by turning into a girl - Victoire Weasley, in fact. Blake turned scarlet, and Skoren changed back.

"What happened to Tonks?" Levi asked, motioning to Skoren's neck, which had no locket around it.

"I gave the locket to Teddy," he explained. "It's his mum, and we're going to be pen pals now that he's a Herbologist. Plus, he and I are the only known Metamorphmagi in the world at the moment, so we gotta stick together, right?"

"McGonagall's referred Rose and I to the Ministry," Blake said proudly. "As Aurors."

"Nice," Levi said, smiling.

Someone knocked at the compartment door.

"_Alohomora_," Ali said, unlocking the door. "Come in."

Albus and James Potter stood in the doorway, looking nervous.

"I'm sorry I told Rita Skeeter those lies about you," Albus whispered nervously.

"S'okay," Levi said, shrugging. "She's in Trachador, and I'm fine."

"Really?" Albus said, his eyes shining. "So we're… friends?"

"Sure!" Levi said, scooting over to make room. "C'mon, sit down."

Albus flashed him a nervous smile and sat down. Only James stood there.

"I'm sorry, Rose, for bugging you," he mumbled. "And I'm sorry, Um- McGonagall, for being so mean to you. I see that you're a whole lot more than your parents."

Levi quietly contemplated James Potter for a moment, before smiling. "Ali, I'm sure we can make room somehow."

Ali grinned and magically widened both the seats. James' eyes widened, and he sat down as well.

"And if it makes you two feel any better, you were half-right," Levi explained. "My dad was a dementor."

Their faces drained of color.

"My mum was a mermaid," Ali chimed in.

"And my dad was a Manticore," Skoren finished.

Albus' face was as white as a ghost.

"Blimey," James said after a moment, and the entire compartment burst into laughter.

Everyone's parents were at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters that evening. A laughing Albus Potter ran to Ginny Potter and Harry Potter's open arms, with James trailing behind smiling faintly. Skoren walked up to his parents, standing coldly there. He looked at them and instead turned and walked next to Ali, who was greeted by a jovial round-looking man and a woman who was looking nervously at a nearby owl. The man looked at Skoren, roared with laughter, and swept him up in a hug.

Blake Finnigan high-fived Levi one last time before walking to his dad, who he seemed to threaten to hex if he pointed at Levi one more time.

Rose Weasley walked to Ron and Hermione Weasley, smiling and laughing, then turned around and waved at Levi, who waved back.

He found Professor McGonagall - Mum - waiting at the barrier.

"So what're our plans this summer, Mum?" he asked.

"Well, the country home isn't very exciting right now, so I decided we'd be spending it in our Diagon Alley flat," she announced.

"Free reign of Diagon Alley for an entire summer?" he grinned. "Wicked."

"Lord preserve us," his mother said, rolling her eyes. "We'll get your school things early and head to Hogwarts about a month in advance. I need to plan out my lessons."

"An extra month of Hogwarts?" Levi said. "Even better."

"Come visit us at Diagon Alley!" he yelled to his friends as he gathered his things.

"We will!" Skoren and Ali yelled simultaneously. Rose gave him the thumbs up, while Albus and James just smiled and him. Blake laughed and gave a little salute.

He finally got all his things together.

"You can Apparate on your own?" McGonagall asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yup," Levi said, smiling. "Could you take my stuff, though?"

"Sure," she said, grabbing the cart.

Levi McGonagall waved to his friends one last time, before turning on his heel and Disapparating.

He'd be back soon.

**(IT'S FINISHED! WOOHOO! Thanks to all my readers who stuck with me until the very end. I enjoyed writing this immensely, and it proves to me that I **_**can**_** finish a multichapter, with the proper motivation. There **_**will**_** be sequels, but I'm taking a break to work on an Edge Chronicles multichapter, called Morning over Riverrise. Thanks for reading - Puff Pastry Breadbug, signing off! *Disapparate!*)**

**~PPB**


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